


The Bone Initiative (And All the Damage It Has Done)

by slaughter_doll



Series: The Inked Ones [1]
Category: Marvel, The Avengers
Genre: DAMN DYSLEXIA HAS ME MISSPELLING EVERYTHING, F/M, I have no idea what I'm doing with my life let alone this story, M/M, father figure!Wade, non consensual situation, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-03-14 19:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 26
Words: 45,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3423377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slaughter_doll/pseuds/slaughter_doll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My name’s Bruja, which is Spanish for Witch. I don’t remember my real name. In fact, I don’t remember anything from before age 9. Back then, I had signed up for this free military style training in a shop in downtown LA. I figured, "hey, I’ve got bone cancer and no parents, what’s the worst that could happen?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

“Bruja, _pay attention!_ ”

 

I really hated that name. I didn’t want my powers. I didn’t want how I came by them. I didn’t want to be taken from California, and put in some shitty facility in Mexico for 10 years. I didn’t want to be tested on, poked and prodded, and I certainly didn’t want to be in this stupid meeting.

 

My name’s Bruja, which is Spanish for Witch. I don’t remember my real name. In fact, I don’t remember anything from before age 9. Back then, I had signed up for this free military style training in a shop in downtown LA. I figured, _hey, I’ve got bone cancer and no parents, what’s the worst that could happen?_

 

Well, as it turns out, a lot could be worse than cancer, and a lot of that could happen. And it did. They not only kidnapped me, trained me to become another Winter Soldier or Natasha “Black Widow” Romanov, but they drugged and tested on me as well.

 

Once the Weapon X program in Canada was shut down (the one that made Deadpool and Wolverine?), Dr. Dominic Maddox started La Iniciativa de Hueso, or The Bone Initiative in Mexico. It was similar, but they pretty much filled your bones with poison and some chemical that caused healing factors. Somehow, Dr. Maddox got his filthy hands on some of Wade Wilson’s DNA, and used it on many of us. Not just Wilson’s either, Wolverine, Leech, and Sabretooth's too. Anyone who ever came in contact with Weapon X came in contact with us.

 

Many of us died or our bones would deteriorate and become jello-like (so we couldn’t stand, let alone train). But the results they were looking for only happened in me and a few others. Our cartilage and bones could handle the constant tests, transplants, and surgeries, and we could train without them breaking. Out of 2,000 of us, only half survived the First Stage. The Second Stage was taxing to say the least. They tortured us and trained us 20 hours a day. Our hospital rooms became underground cells and instead of beds we were given the ground. To this day, I can smell the blood and stone, hear the fights and screams of pain. Every day, we learned how to kill and how to get information.

 

Stage Three was the real world. Real missions, real money, real targets. About 90% of the ones who made it to Stage Three were under 13 years old, myself included. This obviously caught S.H.E.I.L.D.’s attention (after 8 years), and a few months ago, I was ‘rescued’ during a mission.

 

My name’s Bruja, and I’m currently sitting in a S.H.E.I.L.D. meeting room with The Avengers, Spider-Man, The Winter Soldier, and Nick Fury. And I just found out that SHIELD didn’t shut down La Iniciativa de Hueso.


	2. Chapter 2

“Fury, I think she’s had a long day. All those blood tests and scans have worn her out.” Bruce spoke into his ear softly, hoping I wouldn’t hear.

 

“I’m fine. I may be 19, but I can handle a lot more than a few needles and radiation.” I rubbed my aching neck and looked over to the man at the head of the table. “I honestly wasn’t listening to your prattling, Fury. All I care about is my mission and how long until I’m in the field.” My patience was running seriously thin. We’d been there for at least two hours. Two hours of mind numbing talk about something that would give most kids my age nightmares.

 

“You’re not going on a mission, brat. _We_ are going to take down the facility.” Clint “Hawkeye” Barton stood across from Bucky and I, with his bow aimed in-between the two of us (I don’t think he knew which was of us he was going to have to shoot). He’d been like that since the murderer sat down next to me and I viciously growled at him. Why The Winter fucking Soldier was sitting next to me, I didn’t know, but I didn’t like him. I actually didn’t like most of the people I was in the room with. I would honestly rather be locked in a room with Johnny Strom for 3 weeks than put up with these high and mighty heroes. And I would rather go back to Mexico than sit next to Hydra scum like Bucky Barnes. If Hydra wasn’t already taken down, I would personally destroy them for what they did to me and my kind.

 

“The hell you are!” I slammed my hand on the table and stood up. As I did, every weapon in the room was immediately aimed towards me but that didn’t bother me. In fact, not much did. “That facility did things to me that you couldn’t imagine even if you tried! This is my battle and I’m going whether you authorize it or not.”

 

Out of all of the people in this room, I didn’t mind Bruce Banner. We had a lot in common. Thor was nice to me as well, because apparently I remind him of his brother. And based off of the look from Tony Stark, that wasn’t a good thing. “Young lady Bruja, you are still small.” Speak of the devil. Or, god, I guess. “You are not fit to be fighting battles.”

 

“Thor, do me a favor?” I looked him dead in the eye, and he nodded. “Fuck right the hell off.” I almost felt bad when the blonde flinched and gave me a pained look. _Almost._

 

“Watch your mouth missy!” Cap stood up and placed a firm grip on my shoulder, which I quickly slapped off with a stone cold glare. I could tell from the look on Stark’s face that he was ready to jump in and protect his boyfriend, but it wasn’t needed.

 

“Or what Grandpa? You going to hit me with that shield of yours?” For a second after I said that, I thought he was actually going to. “Hate to tell you this, but I can take you. You may be bigger and stronger, but I’m quicker and I _can’t die._ ” I wanted to. Really, I did. I guess I got that from Deadpool’s DNA. Everything went silent, and I looked down to the folder Fury had placed in front of me. It was my folder, actually. I was officially a S.H.E.I.L.D. Agent, assuming I didn’t say ‘screw you’ and go Turbo, Wreck-it-Ralph style (I was seriously considering it).

 

“The truth is, Bruja, both you and Bucky here are in no shape to go on missions yet.” For the first time that day, Peter Parker piped in. During most of the meeting, he couldn’t bear to look at me. I guess seeing someone bursting with your hubby’s DNA is a little nerve wracking. And even more unsettling for him, I have Wade’s brilliantly blue eyes.

 

“That’s why you are going to start training. Together. Are we clear, Bruja?” Fury placed on hand on the table and looked between the two of us. Bucky scoffed and I laughed. Hard.

 

“Okay, okay.” I gasped for breath and held my lungs together. “Let me get this straight, the most dangerous Hydra mercenary, and the girl who can change into anyone,” My skin began to tingle as I felt my bones rearrange into Fury’s structure. “Or anything –real or fiction-, aren’t ready to go on missions? You realize my first mission was to kill a politician at age 11, right?” The hilarity faded from my face. “I won’t be training with Hydra filth, or with any SHIELD Agent. You’re saying La Iniciativa de Hueso is still underway, and I’m going to take it down with or without your god damned help. Are we clear Nick?” My skin began to tingle again and I changed back into myself. When I was only met with silence, I turned to Bruce. “Now, Banner, would you mind taking me to my room? I believe I’m done here.”

 

~~

 

The second I left the meeting room, I changed into a fox. It was my favourite form, and I could think without having to worry about emotion showing. Not that my thought process lasted long, because I was interrupted. “Bruja? Can I ask you something?” I stopped and turned my head to the human towering over me. “I’ll take that as a yes. I just, hm.” He put his hand to his chin and thought for a second. “Why doesn’t your folder have a picture?”

 

I was no idiot, I knew that wasn’t what he wanted to ask, but I shifted back into a human and answered anyway. This time, I looked different than I did in the meeting. In there, I had long brown hair in a braid, a large nose and broad chin. That wasn’t me. That was my alias, my fake face. Not many knew what I really looked like, but now Bruce was one of them. And all he could do was stare at me.

 

Plump red lips, a slender frame, pale blue eyes that nearly shone against incredibly long black hair and a button nose. Freckles littered my face and shoulders, and a large red tattoo covered the left side of my face and neck. Three lines from my temple to my collar bone, with another beginning at the bridge of my nose and ending just before my ear. If my hair had been shaved, he would have seen the large crescent moon of braids, knots, and dot work intertwined around my ear (it took up the entire left side). “This is why. Not many people outside of The Bone Initiative have seen my real face because I’m marked. Branded. Every ‘patient’ that made it to the second stage had something similar to this. They didn’t care about names (despite the fact that they assigned us codenames), just these.” I gently touched the blood coloured ink on my skin and closed my eyes. My pace sped up and Banner had to jog to catch up to me. “The 1,000 of us in stage two were split up into four colors, or classifications of 250 people. Red meant you were the top dogs, the best, the easiest to regulate but certainly the most skilled. Purple doomed you to death or suicide missions. White meant you were useful, but not to be trusted. Black…Well, black was for the most dangerous. _The monsters_. You think The Hulk is a beast? You better hope to god you never meet a Black Ink.” Bad memories flashed in my mind, and I wanted nothing more than to go to my room and punch something. “But, that isn’t what you really want to know. So spit it out.”

 

“What did you mean when you called Barnes ‘Hydra Filth’? Did the Bone Initiative have a past with Hydra?”

 

I stopped dead in my tracks as a stabbing pain filled my chest and I couldn’t breathe. Flashes of blood stained Red Inks and the bodies of my friends torn to pieces ran through my mind. Inside, I was screaming, crying, punching and breaking everything I could get my hands on. But on the outside my eyes were empty and my face showed nothing of my internal state. “A year and a half ago, Hydra dispatched The Winter Soldier and a few other agents to take down my team. They only got 100 of the 250 of us, my second in command included.” I remained still like stone as a single tear fell down my face, and my hand moved to the half circle under my hair. My second in command, Thiago, had the same one, and it was our way of declaring marriage.

 

_Stupid betraying tear. We aren’t supposed to cry, remember? People like us don’t cry._

“Your second, were you two close?” I didn’t blame him for asking, but I couldn’t answer nonetheless. The rest of the walk was silent and once we reached my room, I slammed the door before he had the chance to say anything else.

 

~~

 

My room wasn’t all that great. The wall adjacent to the door was a bulletproof window that looked out to the ocean we were currently flying over. To the left was a bookshelf, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. To the right was a punching bag, my black chest with my weapons and clothes, and a bed (that I didn’t plan on using. After so many years of sleeping on stone, beds were too soft for me). In the bathroom was a small supply of things I would need. Razors, a toothbrush and toothpaste, soaps, lotion, etc. The only thing that caught my existing attention, was the razors. During the silent moments of the walk, I thought about my real face. And I realized, _screw it._ I’m going to wear my beautiful body and do it with absolute confidence. Just like Thiago wanted me to, he always encouraged me to be proud. _“We may be different, but we are amazing, mi amor.”_ His thick accent rang in my ears, and I almost felt his dark skinned hands tracing the dragon tattoo on my back.

 

~~

 

I placed my new SHIELD laptop which played Bundy by Animal Alpha, on the counter next to the sink, and grabbed two razors. With skilled fingers, I pried the first one apart. The cold silver felt nice in my hands, and without hesitation I grabbed all of the hair on the left side of my head. Once the lead singer began to scream the lyrics, I bit my lip and sliced the long strands off. Vague memories of gaining his tattoo made my eyes water as entire locks fell to the floor around me.

 

Once the stubble was short enough, I took the second razor and dragged it across my head. The crimson ink stood out against my pale skin and I felt normal again. No more fake faces, no more forms. If I was going to do this mission, I would do it as myself.

 

Once I jumped in and out of the shower, I was exhausted. So I placed a blanket on the floor next to the window, moved my trunk to my feet, and quickly fell asleep.

 

~~

 

The sirens woke me up first. Not Black Widow pounding on my door, not the lights, and not the screams. I learned to sleep through sounds like that, but sirens? We were all trained to be up and armed within 30 seconds of the first siren in an emergency.

 

I jumped out of bed with my fists raised and adrenaline beginning to pump through my veins. I was still half asleep, so without thinking, I rapidly unbolted the lid to my trunk and geared up. This was routine for me, I didn’t even realize I was doing it until my boots were half on.

 

Unlike people like Spiderman or Deadpool, I didn’t wear spandex. I wore shorts, a utility belt, a tank top (from SHIELD, considering I didn’t want to wear the one from the Initiative), and combat boots. Thanks to my healing factor, I didn’t need to worry about wounds or armor. My utility belt held a bunch of stuff like throwing knives, four flash grenades, a sickle, two combat blades, and a SIG P250 with 10 mags. Slung across my back was a .308 caliber KNT-308 Sniper Rifle imported from Turkey, with a (stolen) telescopic sight with night vision optics. Red Inks like myself specialized in torture, melee weaponry, and most importantly, long distance shooting. And being the Alpha Red Ink, I was the best in those categories in all of the Initiative.

 

“Bruja! The Hulk is free, we’re here to get you out and away from here!” Black widow burst into my room (not even acknowledging my ‘new’ look, _rude!_ ) and yelled over the loud alarms. She grabbed my hand and dragged me out into the hallway where Barnes and the rest of the Avengers were. Except Thor. I figured he was the only one who could try to take The Hulk, and that’s exactly what he was doing.

 

“Where is he?”

 

“What?” Steve cupped his ear and shouted, trying to make sure he heard what he thought he did.

 

“Where is Banner? I can help!” My hands were busy tying my long hair into a tight ponytail, but my eyes didn’t leave the team in front of me.

 

~~

 

He was on the top deck of the helicarrier, slamming Thor around. The alarms were quieter up there, which meant we could speak without yelling. However, that didn’t stop the people I was with from yelling ‘what?!’ at my statement.

 

“I said _hit me_. Either Cap with his shield, or Bucky with his metal arm. It needs to be hard enough to break the bones in my face and knock at least half of my teeth out. And considering Mjolnir’s owner is too busy, it needs to be someone here.” Every face in front of me was blank. “Oh my god, okay look. Bruce has Hulk, right? I’ve got one too, named Kegan. In order to get Kegan to take the Hulk down, I need to be punched as hard as inhumanly possible, to jump start the transformation. Got it?”

 

“I’ll do it.” Hawkeye stepped forward and grinned.

 

“No offense, but like I said, break the bones, knock out the teeth. And let’s face it, you aren’t exactly--” I was cut short by something cold and harder than stone knocking me to the ground. Agony filled my entire head as I felt the now broken bones rearrange. Whoever hit me did I good job because when I opened my mouth to cry, a heap of teeth fell out. When I looked up, I saw Mjolnir in front of me and behind that, the Avengers were backing away.

 

_I stand corrected, Thor isn’t too busy._

 

I screamed again as my eyes turned red and every bone in my body stretched. My throat began to burn as a gas chamber grew and heated up to unearthly temperatures. Before I knew it, I was 24 feet tall, 30 feet long, with a wingspan of 42 feet. My nails had grown to over 1 foot long, my teeth were sharper than razors, and my skin was covered in black scales. Despite only ‘hatching’ (stumbling upon my ability to do this during a fight with a particularly nasty Hellhound Shifter) 7 years ago, Kegan and I were huge in this state.

 

“She’s a fucking dragon?!” I heard a –muffled- Tony Stark screaming about our form.

 

 _Kegan, the green one. Your mission is to neutralize without killing. Do not spit acid or lava. Fire at a minimum._ All I needed to do was think about the mission, and Kegan would do it. Thankfully, this was one of the biggest differences between Banner and I. My monster would actually listen to me (it took a lot of training and a mutual agreement). It had been a year since Kegan was let out of her cage, and I soon felt myself losing consciousness. The last thing I heard was her voice calming my worries.

_Don’t worry, Bruja, I know who he is, I will not harm him too badly._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fourth dragon down (Black Dragons) is what Kegan looks like: http://marrphaven.myfunforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=55&start=0
> 
> Thiago and Bruja's tattoo: http://creativefan.com/important/cf/2012/11/face-tattoos/japanese-tattoo.jpg


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kegan's resting state/tattoo-thing: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b1/40/3f/b1403f2e9f87d89eafa3542631bd61f8.jpg
> 
> Translations:  
> Haec vulnera sanaret = The wound will be healed  
> Sana = Heal  
> Ay dios mίo = Oh my god  
> Lo siento = I'm sorry

When I woke up, I was laying in my room, on the way too soft bed. The sun was rising, with the dark purple colors of the night blending with the baby blue of the daytime. I wasn’t hurting, but my leg was tightly wrapped in compresses. With a scoff and a smirk, I sat up and began to unravel the white cloth. The joints on my leg felt too stiff and a little too… _new_. My leg must have been broken –not just broken, destroyed- during the fight. That was why I felt so groggy, healing always took the strength out of me. And healing after a Kegan situation? Forget about it. The first time it happened, I was 9, and went into a coma for a month.

 

For some reason I was in a white hospital gown, with only underwear and my lace bra underneath. I decided that laying around on a cloud-like mattress in a frock that brought back too many memories was not a good thing to do, so I stood and stretched. Inside of my skin, I could feel Kegan trying to get comfortable, and together we stretched our willowy limbs. I knew that every time I woke her up, it got harder for the dragon to sleep again, and one day, I would lose control of my shifting all together (like most of the Black Inks did). But we tried our best not to let that happen, because neither of us wanted to find out what we would be like.

 

As I relaxed from the stretch, I untied and removed the gown, but hadn’t noticed my new audience until he cleared his throat and knocked on the door. “Bruce! Are you okay? She didn’t hurt you too badly, did she?” I didn’t turn around, just merely looked his way with a smile. His arm was completely wrapped in bandages like the ones I had just removed, only they looked thicker, and had a few blood stains. I also noticed that he was carrying a mug of coffee for me.

 

“Minor burns, and some surprisingly nasty lacerations.” His eyes were trained to the large tattoo on my back, and I knew it. “Apparently the other guy can handle bullets, gods, and nuclear weapons, but not dragons. Can Kegan really spit acid?”

 

I pulled on my shorts and whipped around to walk towards him. I touched his bandaged arm and whispered “She didn’t do that did she?” He nodded then winced at my touch. “Damn it, I told her no Lava, no acid! Fire to a _minimum!_ ” Hissing, I felt heat in my back as Kegan growled something about our leg. I placed my hands on his arm and whispered “ _Haec vulnera sanaret, sana, sana, sana.”_

 

The man’s eyes went wide and once I removed my hands, he handed me my coffee and rapidly removed the bandages. “They’re gone…” Banner breathlessly dragged his fingers along where his injuries used to be and stared at me. “Was… Was that Latin?”

 

With one hand cupping the rose tattoos on my hip, I grinned. “Now you know why they call me Bruja. When I realized I could become anything, I did a lot of research to figure out what DNA strand would give me access to witch-like powers. It turns out it isn’t DNA at all, you only need to use more than a certain percent of your brain. Like that movie, _Lucy_ , with the actress who, albeit disturbingly, looks like a clone of Natasha? Anyway, you would not believe the situations where that came in handy.” I turned back to my trunk and searched for a comfortable shirt. “Um, how long have I been out?”

 

“Yeah, I-I’ll bet. Um...” He stopped for a second, and I supposed he was trying to snap back to reality. “You’ve been asleep for three days, Fury says congratulations on passing the test, by the way.” I looked at him and then threw my hands up.

 

“ _Ay_ _dios mίo_ , I don’t want to know, or I think I may actually kill him.”

 

Bruce nodded and quickly changed the subject. “Do you mind me asking why you have a tattoo of her?” His words seemed reluctant, but also inquisitive at the same time. “The other girl, I mean. You have a lot of tattoos, but that one baffles me, to say the very least.” It was true, I was absolutely covered in tattoos. On my thighs, I had portraits of my favourite fictional monsters. Various sigils, tarot cards, traditional tats, and runes were placed all over my body. Along with those, I had ‘Good’ on my right eyelid, ‘Bye’ on my left one, rose vines extending from my ribs and resting on my hipbones, and a small drop point blade under my right eye. Most people would say I ruined my beautiful face and body with these, but I think I enhanced it. I loved my tattoos, and I loved the way they looked on me.

 

“No, I don’t mind at all.” I reached one of my hands around and felt her scales. “The truth is, it isn’t exactly a tattoo. It’s her. That’s where she sleeps when she isn’t, you know, burning stuff.” She was climbing my back, with her wings spread out wide and her tail wrapping around my side. Sometimes scales poked out from under the skin, which prevented me from sleeping on my back and wearing shirts or bras for weeks at a time. And when she felt an emotion, depending on how strongly she felt it, she would heat up and burn me. This one time, we were sent to Northern Canada to kill a spy and ended up getting stuck in a blizzard. I didn’t freeze solid for the simple reason that I pissed her off enough to keep me warm.

 

After I pulled on a shirt, I turned and faced him again. With a motion to the bed, he sat down and I collapsed onto my trunk. “You two seem… comfortable with one another. Close, even.” Banner’s brown eyes looked down to his clasped hands. “I don’t get it.”

 

I smiled. “Yeah, I guess we are. Kegan and I have been through some rough things.” My grin twisted, and now it was my turn to look down. I watched the way the dark liquid swirled around in the mug, and I knew he was going to ask. So I answered before he could say it. “My second in command, Thiago. We were more than close.” Bruce and I both looked up and met eyes, and I think he knew what I was going to say, before I even thought it. “We were married, for four years. And when he died, I was too damaged to go on missions, let alone get out of bed. Kegan was so angry, all she wanted to do was kill.”

 

“Did Thiago and Kegan get along?” From his tone, I could hear the disbelief. Not that I blamed him for it, The Hulk wasn’t exactly known for playing nice with others. Even now, I’m surprised that he didn’t question the whole ‘I got properly married at age 14’ thing.

 

I scoffed a small laugh. “Thiago was the only one who could calm her down. Well not him, he had his own version of her. A great sea serpent named Arno, who loved her, trained with her, and took care of her.” Feeling the sorrow and heat from my back, I whispered a small ‘ _lo siento_ ’ and rolled my shoulder blades to try and relax her. “Anyways, when Hydra killed him, Kegan took over. I lost six months of my memory, and went into a coma for another eight months.”

 

“We found you four months ago, right?”

 

I nodded. “Yes, that was a month after I woke up. When I did wake up, I found out that we had accumulated over $50,000 from missions she finished. And she had also found a comfortable warehouse for us, so we could be safe.”

 

“Safe? From the others like you…like me?”

 

“Mmm, no.” I murmured into my cup. “That was why Hydra sent their monster. To get rid of ours. There were only eight, but we were in charge of the Inks. There were two for each color, an Alpha and a Beta. But they’re all dead now. I was on a mission when it happened, so I’m the only one left, as far as I know.” It took a massacre for them to find Thiago, and I don’t think I could ever forget what I saw that day.

 

He hummed in thought for a moment, and shook his head. I was about to thank Bruce for the coffee and talking with me, when a very drunk Spiderman burst in and ruined the ‘heart-to-heart.’

 

“Heeeey! Kegan! Do you mind if I call youu that?” Even from across the room, I could smell the alcohol on his breath. Baileys Irish Cream, a drink for pussies, in my opinion. I myself preferred beer, but whiskey above any other spirits.

 

 

“Do you call Bruce the Hulk?” Not bothering to hide my displeasure, I sneered at the teenager.

 

“Well,” Peter hiccupped, “Only when he’s like 8 feet tall and green as a mother fucker.”

 

“Then you can call me Kegan when I’m 24 feet tall and breathing fire.” I spat back at him before taking a large swig from the drink in my hands. “What do you want?”

 

“My husband, Deadpool, wants ta meet youu.” As he said this, Peter leaned against the wall and grinned mockingly. I couldn’t stop myself from scowling. _Why would he want to meet me?_ It was obvious Bruce was thinking this as well, because he looked at me with –probably- the only confused face I will ever see on him.

 

“Fine, But I’m going to need something stronger than your stupid-ass Baileys.”

 

~~

 

“Wade, this is her.” Fury motioned over to me, but didn’t bother looking my way. A tall man in a black and red spandex suit jumped up from his spot, which disturbed and nearly knocked over the table he was sitting at (it did knock over his beer and Tony’s whiskey though), and ran over to me as fast as he could. Immediately, his hands found my shoulders and he was turning me around aggressively to check my body for wounds like his.

 

“No, yellow, I don’t see any scars. No, white I didn’t see her eyes, I’m busy. Guys shut up, I think she’s okay.” Wade Wilson was muttering to himself frantically, and hadn’t noticed me clutching one of my combat blades. “Are you in any pain? Like all the time? Do you have cancer? Fuck, yellow, shut up she’s like our daughter.”

 

That word echoed in my head. Daughter. Daughter? _Daughter._ I hadn’t heard that word in a long time, if ever. I found my hand letting go of the knife and hastily reaching for my SIG. I placed it right underneath his chin and glowered. “Woah, slow down there cowboy. Look, thank you for being worried about my wellbeing, but,” My breath was shaking, along with my entire body. Tears pricked my eyes and the pistol rattled in the unsteady hands clutching desperately to it. “I-I need you to give me five feet, o-o-or my pretty little bullets are going to paint the walls with your brains.” I’ve never been a daughter. I’ve been a wife, a leader, and a warrior. Hell, even a lab rat (both literally and figuratively), but _never_ _a_ _daughter_. And even if I was his kid, I (along with many others) heard about the incident with his real daughter, Ellie. Which made this reaction even more surprising. I should have expected said reaction, though. Neither of us could die, so why would he fear a gun?

 

He pulled me into a hug and whispered that he was sorry. What for, I could only imagine. But I felt Bruce’s hand on the small of my back and it calmed me some. So I breathed deeply and wrapped my hands about the larger figure. I hadn’t been hugged in over a year. This was my first time being held in eighteen months. “Heh, you smell like me.” Wade laughed a little in my ear and then held me at arm’s length. “Who would have thought that Logan and I’s love-child would be so beautiful?”

 

I ignored that last part. I had Logan’s nose and agility, but nothing else. “And White was right, I have your eyes.” I reached up and pulled his mask off (he didn’t even flinch), and looked into his beautiful baby blues. They matched mine perfectly. Even the black spot in the corner of the left eye. It was surreal, and I reckoned I should spend some time with him. Maybe it would help us both get over the past a little bit. If anyone in that room understood what I’d been through, it was Wade.

 

“So, I hear you’re the best kill for hire around?” Wade raised his eyebrow at my question and nodded. “I challenge you then! We’ll see who the best is. Loser buys burritos!” Burritos were my favourite food, especially alongside a chocolate milkshake and a churro.

 

He jumped up and down (like a child on Christmas morning) for a moment and then tried to play it off like he was cool. “Totally my fuckin’ daughter.” The Merc with the Mouth smiled and this time, I didn’t flinch. I wasn’t his daughter, but if it made him feel better to call me that…Then whatever.

 

~~

 

We went to one of the SHIELD training rooms, which had four targets (all in the shape of Dr. Doom) lined up. Agent Coulson was there and he was very kind to let us the room. But first, we had to sign in any weapons we had and sign a few documents saying SHIELD wasn’t responsible for any injuries.

 

Then I was up first. I took out three throwing knives and grabbed my .308 Caliber rifle before taking off my belt. My bare feet felt cold against the Helicarrier’s steel floor, but it helped with the excitement Kegan was burning my back with. I cocked the rifle and set it down on the floor, then took a few steps back and placed the knives in their designated places. One went in-between each of my big toes, and the third stayed in my hand. “You ready for this? I’m going to blow your mind.”

 

Slowly, I pulled my arm back and threw the first blade. It landed with a thunk in the middle of Dr. Doom’s right eye. Then I launched forward in a handstand flip and flung my legs hard enough that the two other blades went through the eyes of Dr. Doom #2. Without stopping for a breath, I moved directly into a handstand forward roll. My hands landed on my rifle, and when I rolled back to my feet, there were two immediate gunshots. Without even looking to make sure I made my mark in the forehead of Dr. Doom #2 and #3 (I knew I did), I turned and smiled to Nick Fury. “Not ready for missions, Fury?” I half expected his jaw to go slack, but instead it looked like the vein on his forehead was going to burst. Clint and Natasha walked over and clapped me on the back, Bruce gave me an admiring look, and Tony was handing Steve $50 bucks.

 

“I don’t know if I can compete with that.” The scarred man walked forward with his hands raised. But before I knew it, a smirk crossed his face and he threw both his katana in between Black Widow, Hawkeye, and I. Then, without warning, he pulled out his pistol, looked away, and shot three swift rounds. Each of the blades went through the bullets I had shot, and his shots knocked away my throwing knives.

 

“You’re lucky these didn’t break, Wilson.” My hands picked up the black knives and spun them between my knuckles.

 

“Aww, call me daddy, why don’t you?” I laughed as he gave me a pleading look with a pouting lip.

 

“No thanks, I ain’t into your kinks, dude.” Once I clipped my belt on, I walked back over to him.

 

He groaned. “I see you got Logan’s vocabulary.”

 

“Yeah, but I got your _amazing_ sense of humor!” I looped my arm in his and we began walking out of the training room.

 

“What are you talking about? His jokes make me want to shoot myself!” Tony Stark yelled from behind us, using both his hands and his boyfriend’s (which he was holding) to exaggerate.

 

“Shush, Tony. Show me what’cha got girly!”

 

I giggled a little and tried to catch my breath. “Okay, what’s the difference between a hippy and a hockey player?” Both of us stopped to turn around and look at the group. Everyone shook their heads and Wade answered, considering I was laughing too hard to tell them. “Hockey players take showers after three periods!” Both of us clutched on to one another and laughed until our faces were blue.

 

“They need serious help.” Barton turned to Peter, “Why the hell are you married to him?” Peter simply shrugged and smiled with pure adoration for the man shining in his brown eyes. Based off of said look, I figured out that Wade hadn’t laughed like that with anyone in a very long time.

 

Once we caught our breath and stopped laughing, Wade grabbed my hand and walked me towards the elevator. “Just for that joke, breakfast is on me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who don't know, Ellie is Wade's daughter who was taken to a facility much like the one Bruja was in, except it was in North Korea. I won't tell you what happened for the sake of spoilers, but it was sad.
> 
> Also, who's the monster? Wade, or Banner?


	4. Chapter 4

After roughly an hour, all eight of us (Thor was missing and I refused to let The Winter Soldier come along) arrived at a wonderful little Mexican place down on Fifth Street, after the Helicarrier landed in New York. Wade and I elected to sit at our own table and talk about our missions, and tell each other insane stories with as much gory detail as possible. So you could understand why none of the Avengers complained when we sat alone.

 

“So, you can imagine the noises that fucker made when I jumped off of the table in the morgue, with my chest cut open and liver removed. Aw man, if I didn’t kill him myself, I’d have thought that his heart stopped then and there!” I giggled at my memory, and Wade choked on his taco. Together we laughed and I was enjoying myself, for the first time in a long while. That is, until Wade stopped laughing and got serious.

 

“You should meet him y’know. I think he’d like you.”

 

I took a bite of my burrito and looked up at him. “Hm, who?”

 

“Logan,” I coughed and nearly choked on my food at Wade’s suggestion, but he paused and scooted my milkshake towards me. “It might help you, let go of the past or help you feel something. I dunno.”

 

After a healthy gulp of my shake, I sighed deeply and shook my head. “Yes, because he absolutely loves people. Also, do me a favor and don’t become a therapist. Ever.” After a look from him, I waved away the humor. “Alright, you remember a few years ago, when a teenager attacked you in Texas? One so covered in tattoos that you couldn’t see an inch of his skin?”

 

“Yeah, I remember that I didn’t kill him. But I did fuck him up, little shit attacked me and tried to interfere with my paycheck. Didn’t he have a tattoo like yours,” He pointed to my face. “But blue or something?”

 

“Purple. His name –codename, anyway- was Alejo, which meant _Man’s defender._ And it fit too. The reason he took that mission, which was to get more of your DNA, was because they were threatening to kill his brother, who was White Ink. He was one of the few people who got your scars and cancer instead of your healing factor, hence the tattoos.”

 

“Ooookayy, what does this have to do with meeting Logan?” Wade chewed on his straw thoughtfully and looked like a child with those big, (not exactly) innocent eyes. How was this man nearly 30?

 

“When he came back without any of your DNA, the leaders of the Initiative got angry and poisoned him. But in their eyes, that wasn’t a harsh enough punishment, so they gave him to the Red Inks (my team)” I pointed to the mark on my face. “For target practice.” I stopped and took another sip of my milkshake, knowing I would leave him in unbearable suspense.

 

“Well! Go on! White says you didn’t kill him, but Yellow disagrees. They’re making bets and I wanna see who wins!” Again, how was this man nearly 30? Even Kegan was mocking his immaturity. But I suppose both him and I have our own ways of dealing with intense moments.

 

“Well, being the Alpha Red, I couldn’t let that happen. Purple Inks are the bravest of us all. Because they know they are going to die, they make sure that they die for something, and I was not going to get in the way of that. So we did our best to ease the pain, and he died in my arms a few days later. Before he did though, he told me about meeting you. Alejo said he snuck up on you and saw your face, and despite the fact that it helped him feel less like a freak, it didn’t help him at all in any other way.” Wade stopped chewing on his straw and processed my story for a moment. “The truth is Wade, I don’t feel like a freak. And I doubt meeting both you and Wolverine will help me let go of anything, let alone everything.”

 

It took a moment for this to sink in, and based from the look on Wade’s face, I guessed that not even the voices had something to say. After a few minutes, he broke the silence. “I see.”

 

“It wasn’t your fault that they killed him, you know. They were the ones who gave Alejo cancer, and they were the ones who assigned him Purple Ink. But you know what _I_ see?” He shook his head and I pointed to the table the Avengers were sitting at “I see that Bruce and Peter are almost green with jealousy.” The two had been glancing at us frequently, with bitter looks on their faces. Well, Peter looked bitter. Bruce just looked, I don’t know, annoyed? But before Wade could laugh at my accidental Hulk pun, the two were walking our way.

 

“Bruja, it’s time to head back to SHIELD. Fury has an idea he wants to run by us.” Bruce placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear as Peter sat down in Wade’s lap. They really were cute together, and I was glad at least one of us had a happy love life. With a raised eyebrow, I took Banner’s hand and nodded.

 

~~

 

“This is insane, you are insane! She’s just a kid!” Steve Rogers burst into the observation room (above the training room) and began fighting with Nick Fury, trying to get it into his head how foolish this plan was. Their loud voices boomed over the speaker, but I hardly noticed. My mind was still going over the idea of all this. On the limo ride over, Fury had called and explained a strategy that made even Kegan heat up with fear and complete disbelief.

 

_Bruja, don’t do this. I don’t want to die, dying hurts._

 

“Kegan, _cállate_. He won’t kill us.”

 

_And you’re confident about that why? We spit acid on him!_

“For the record, it was _you_ who did the acid spitting, after I specifically told you not to. And we won’t die because I’ll bet you a free run around the Helicarrier that he likes me and he finds you amusing.”

 

_You’re on! I am not amusing. I am a dragon, I am vicious, petrifying, blood-curdling even! I’m fear itself!_

 

“Calm down there, Smaug.” Shaking my head, I reached back and rubbed her scales in hopes of calming her down. My back felt like I was lying on a bed of lava and it took a lot of self-control not to cry out in pain whenever I spoke. “Bruce, are you ready?”

 

“As I’ll ever be. Are you sure you want to do this? It’s okay to change your mind.” His hands were shaking and so were mine. I bit my lip and considered it for the last time, but I’ve always been the textbook definition of stubborn.

 

****Half an hour before****

 

“Bruja, I was told about Thiago a few hours ago. Is it true he had a situation like Banner’s?” Fury’s voice came through the Bluetooth speaker in the SHIELD Limo. Kegan and I were both angry as well as humiliated that our husbands’ information was becoming so public. But when I looked to Bruce for answers, he merely shook his head.

 

_So it wasn’t him. Who was it then? Do you think Peter Parker eavesdropped, got jealous, and told Fury? Or maybe Barnes remembered?_

 

“Yes, his name was Arno.” Bruce spoke for me, considering my eyes were beginning to water from the pain in my back and heart. Kegan was always the one to get uncontrollably cross, while I always held back the emotions as best I could, but this… This was my one weakness.

 

“Who the fuck told you that, Fury?” My gritted teeth probably made that sound a little too derogatory, but it was important to me that my business stayed _mine_ and not everyone else’s.

 

“You may or may not have a tracking chip in your neck that can transmit your voice as well as health stats. It is standard procedure, and I apologize on behalf of Director Fury.” When Agent Coulson (who was driving) spoke up from the front, I nearly jumped through the window and killed him with my bare hands. The only thing stopping me was Bruce’s hand on my shoulder. I rested into his grip and scowled at the IPhone in front of me.

 

“Standard procedure for mercenaries under our care.” Fury had a way of getting on my nerves, and his statement did more than just that. “That isn’t the point. The point is, you could talk him down from said situation, and you just may be able to do the same for Dr. Banner.”

 

“Fury, that’s borderline idiotic, the other guy will eat her alive!” It was weird seeing someone like me so afraid of their other half. During training with the other seven of the Alpha and Betas, fear was literally beat out of us by each other.

 

“I’ll pay to see that.” Clint leaned his head back against clasped hands and smirked at me.

 

“Shut up Hawk-baby. I’m not in the mood for your dickheaded-ness, and I _will_ kill you.”

 

“What’d you say punk?”

 

“Hawkeye, stand down. Banner, you can choose not to do this if desired. But think about it, Bruja can’t die, and if we find a way to shut The Hulk down, then she could be a major asset to us.”

 

****Now****

“I’m sure, Bruce. It’s okay.”

 

_You’re an idiot for doing this._

With an unsteady smirk, I pushed Bruce playfully, so he could walk to the other side of the room. Everyone agreed that he should give me a few yards of space for self-preparation. But I don’t think anything could prepare you for something like this.

 

_It’s not too late to back out, you know._

“What are you afraid of? Getting squashed? It’s happened before, and it wasn’t too bad…”

 

I nodded to the man across the room to tell him I was ready. Taking a deep breath in, I watched as he slowly began his transformation. And you know what? It looked a lot more painful than mine and Kegan’s.

 

~~

 

My body flung across the room, with blood making a trail on the ground below me. Deadpool’s voice cried out over the speaker, and I barely heard him pounding on the glass walls above me. Heat pooled in my face and back as I felt my bones begin to rearrange. Aches filled my entire body and more than just my face broke when I hit the steel wall. The Hulk had punched me hard enough to cause Kegan to try and step up, but she calmed down when I yelled at her. “Kegan, stand down! _I’ve got this_.”

 

Slowly and painfully, I pushed up onto my hands and knees, and raised a hand to the one walking towards me. “Hulk, stop. Please, it’s going to be ok--” Due to the blood and tissue rising in my throat and splattering on the ground, I couldn’t finish my sentence. Violent coughs wracked my body and I began to shake violently.

 

_Requesting permission to take over and kick his ass! Let me at him, let me at him!_

“Request denied! Hulk, plea--” Agony shot through my torso as the man I was pleading with kicked me over him and punched me across the room again. I felt my ankle snap when I landed against a step near the door.

 

_Bruja, you can’t take much more. When the healing process is this rigorous, it could make you comatose. And soon._

“When did you start getting all scientific and American Mutant Medical Dictionary on me, Kegan? You know what,” I spat the lingering blood and wiped my mouth. “Give me 5 minutes, and he’s yours.”

 

_Deal._

 

“You think me a monster! You fear me! You burned me with acid and cut me with your claws!” His deep voice was obviously trying to scare me, but it didn’t work.

 

“No, you aren’t a monster, I know you aren’t.” It took more strength than I would like to admit to stand and limp over to the larger man. And I mean larger in the sense that he towered over me by at least three feet. My slender 5’5” figure seemed considerably lesser in front of his over 8 foot height. Two blades slid out of my belt and flew into his right knee, which made him drop down to my height. The large green man roared in anger, but I shushed him and apologized. As I neared him, he stood again. “I’m sorry, I had to get you to kneel down. Come here, it’s going to be okay.” At my words, Hulk huffed a few times, but eventually kneeled down so I could place my hand on his cheek. When I did so, he relaxed and leaned into my chest, and I hugged him softly in return. Never once did I stop telling him that it was okay, and that he was not a monster.

 

Eventually, he shrank down to become the (unconscious) scientist I was beginning to know. Cheers burst from the Observation Room once I gently laid Bruce down and faced my audience with a thumbs up. Natasha was laughing, Clint looked like he just lost the biggest bet of his life, Tony was giving Steve another $50, Thor stood in the back with Peter, and Coulson was conversing with Fury. But I didn’t see Wade, which was worrisome for about two seconds.

 

“Human Mutate Skillz!” A large figure came up from behind me and lifted me onto his shoulders.

 

“Hell yeah! Fist bump me, my brother!” I laughed when rough knuckles met mine.

 

“Seriously though, you okay baby girl?”

 

I yawned and leaned against Wade’s head. The pain was already beginning to fade, along with the adrenaline. I needed a nice long nap. “I’m tired, but I’ll be okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have been writing for nearly 20 hours straight.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I do not condone underage drinking. Seriously**  
> The story line is bouncing around a lot, but it'll work out in the end. I hope.

Bruce had been asleep for three days, and it kind of scared me. According to the SHIELD Medical Database (yes, I hacked into it), this only happened to him once. After the Loki incident, he retreaded to Stark Towers and slept for a few weeks. I twirled a throwing knife in my fingers while looking at all of the wires he was hooked up to. Seeing my friends like this always screwed with my head.

 

A few years back, we got this new recruit in the Red Inks named Isa. The Spanish meaning of her name was beautiful and devoted to god. She was both of those things. She was also incredibly talented in more ways than one, but very, very sick. They never told us why she was assigned to Red Ink instead of Purple Ink, but it didn’t matter, she was ours. So I took her under my wing and cared for her until she died. We were so close that I even let her call me mom, and she was the closest Thiago and I ever got to having a proper family.

 

I broke away from my train of thought with a deep exhale. My empty hand twitched then moved to the rosary tattoo on my arm that bore her name. I missed her, I really did. Thiago was a wonderful father figure despite his young age and we were so happy together. Well, as happy as you could be in a situation like that.

 

“Such a heavy sigh, for such a talented girl.” Bruce’s gentle voice surprised me, causing me to drop my knife with a loud clang. “He didn’t hurt you too bad, did he?”

 

I smiled at the reused remark and picked up the throwing blade. “Some lacerations along with some surprisingly nasty internal rupturing. Apparently I can handle needles and some radiation, but not an 8 foot angry green guy. Although, it wasn’t anything I haven’t had before.” A worried look crossed his face at my tried humor. When he tried to sit up, I promptly (and gently) shoved him back down. “Nuh-uh, I have a regenerative healing factor, I’m fine. But despite your accelerated healing, you still need rest. Your knee is still injured.”

 

Bruce sighed and leaned back against the wall. “No, I’m alright.” One look at my stubborn stance made him roll his eyes. “Who’s the doctor here?”

 

_I’m still mad at him, he’s fucked us up twice now._

“Kegan, hush.” I rubbed my shoulder, hoping to shut her up. “Bruce, are you up for dinner? I was told by Steve that Wade wanted to have a celebratory feast or something. Thor’s idea, I think.”

 

~~

 

Hours passed by quickly and drunkenly. We were celebrating my officially becoming an ‘Avenger’s Asset,’ which was just SHIELD’s version of ‘When the Avengers need extra help, you’ll probably be last to get a call. If you get one.’

 

After playing beer pong and tons of other drinking games, I lost a lot of memory of the night. Which was honestly okay. I hadn’t drank happily in over two years. And let me tell you, dorks like Peter Parker may not seem the type, but they know how to have a really goodtime.

 

(I honestly think I played a few different kinds of Poker, which led to me losing half of my comic book collection along with $3,000.)

 

~~

 

A headache thrummed along my temples until I woke up. Once I did, a dull ache shot through my head like a bullet. It took a moment for me to realize that I was in the form of a dog. Not just any dog, no. A Russian Bear Hunting Dog, AKA the Caucasian Ovcharka Nagazi. Apparently, these dogs have no recorded maximum height, and it showed, even on me.

 

Cold metal against my snout felt unbelievably nice, so I rubbed my forehead into it. A half whine half groan managed to claw its way out of my throat without permission, which roused a few of the people around me. Including Kegan.

 

_Who…Who are we laying on?_

I whined while trying (and failing) to lift my head up. Oh man, dogs do not deal with hangovers well. And to add to that, when it came to head injuries or illnesses, my healing factor took its sweet, sweet time. The cold surface I was resting on was beginning to heat up, so I took in the face below me. Blonde hair, a red cape, and beautifully crafted Asgardian armor. He was actually very gorgeous, I just never took the time to properly look. There was a woman next to him with long black hair, a small nose, and her hand clasped tightly in his. Must have been Jane Foster, who was also surprisingly beautiful, but I had never met her before so I wasn’t all that sure.

 

_Oh. Thor, how pleasant. Didn’t you end up sparring with him last night?_

That would explain a lot (like the broken paw that was still healing), but I didn’t remember. Around the room were numerous agents sprawled out the floor with various broken and/or half empty bottles. There was also a guy in a green Hydra suit with ‘BOB: WADE’S BFF 4 EVA’ written on his face. That confused me greatly but I was too hung over to care. Peter was cuddling with Wade’s hoodie in a web-hammock hanging from the roof, which earned a ‘ _god damn they are adorable_ ,’ because let’s face it, they are. Tony and Steve were nowhere to be seen, along with Natasha and Clint. They must have managed to escape a few hours ago. Bruce was in the kitchen, drinking tea and Wade was standing out on the balcony with another beer, which held my interest. How he could still be drinking made no sense to me. But then again, his healing factor made it so that he was never drunk or hung over.

 

 _Lucky bastard_.

 

Getting off of the god without waking him was surprisingly easy. Gods managed to sleep like logs when drunk. Also luckily for me, the door to the patio was open so I didn’t need to shift back into a human. When I sat next to him, Wade looked down at me and smiled. Not that he needed to look down to far, my head easily reached the bottom of his rib cage. A small breeze played upon the wind, and it felt nice ruffling my fur. “So, how about breakfast? I know a little 24 hour diner near here that’s really good. Unless you would prefer a milk-bone?”

 

I huffed for a moment then changed to my human form. The sunrise that had caught my eye was so nice, I didn’t even notice when the man abruptly turned away from me. “Hm, funny. Breakfast sounds nice. Where is hereanyway?” I was only met with silence, and noticed it was unnaturally cold for my current shape. Then I looked down and… Oh fuck. My hands hurriedly covered my chest and I heard Kegan laughing as loud as she could.

 

_Hah! So that’s why you shifted last night. That’s cute, I never knew you were a strip poker kind of girl._

“Kegan! _Shut up_! Besides, I don’t think that’s what happened. Wade, um,” I bit my lip and pushed some hair behind my ear. “That isn’t what happened, is it?” He took off his shirt, tossing it towards my half naked figure. It was two sizes too big for him, so you can understand how it was easily 5 times too big for me.

 

“I don’t know baby girl, I’m not in your head. Speaking of, Yellow, shut the _hell_ up.”

 

“God, living with people only you can hear is the fucking worst. Especially when you can’t die.” Once the shirt was comfortably placed, I thanked him and tucked it into the front of my shorts. I never enjoyed having things cover the weapons on my belt.

 

“Fuck, I know.” He sighed in either frustration or nervousness, or maybe even both. “How about you, Petey, and I go get coffee. There’s something we want to ask you.”

 

~~

 

“S-so, I just,” Wade rubbed his temples and took a long swig of the coffee in front of him. “Peter is moving in with me when he turns 18 in a few months and I—I was wondering,” He began rubbing his hands anxiously. The suspense was killing me, despite the fact that I knew what he was going to ask. I didn’t know what to say, let alone how to answer.

 

“He was wondering if you’d like to move in with us.” Peter reached over to take his lover’s hands gently, and looked at me with a smile. “He is the closest thing you have to family, and SHIELD isn’t exactly the best place for a teenager. Believe me, I know.”

 

“I…Wow,” It took Kegan yelling at me for me to stop staring and close my mouth. “I’ve never—Are you sure?” Peter laughed at me softly, but not in a rude way. It was a genuinely love filled laugh.

 

“You two are so alike, I wouldn’t be surprised if a piece of Wade’s soul is in there with you” I swear I saw starlight in Pete’s brown eyes when he said this, and it made tears form in my blue ones. “Yes, we’re sure.”

 

_Are you really considering this?_

 

“Alright, I will. But only after I,” The tears were now beginning to fall. “Only after I finish off The Bone Initiative.”

 

“I’m going with you,” Wade pulled one of his hands from Peter’s and placed it on mine. “We’re family now, and I’m going make sure I take care of you. _We_ are going to take care of you.”

 

I laughed through the tears. With a sniffle, I rubbed away the cries then smiled back at him. “Fine, but I’m still not calling you daddy.” Wade laughed for a minute, before stopping and maneuvering around the boy in his lap and pulling out his now ringing phone.

 

“Deadpool, Unaliving people since 1990.” Peter and I snickered at his choice of words, but quieted down when we saw the look on his face. “Yeah Preston, we’ll be there in a minute.”

 

“Wade? What’s going on?” The two of us spoke at the same time, but didn’t bother giving each other the ‘jinx!’ look.

 

“That was Agent Preston. They got some Intel on The Bone Initiative, and they need you back at SHIELD for a meeting.”

 

_Aw crap._

~~

 

It took half an hour for us to get there, because Wade and I had to suit up. Considering it sounded pretty serious, I brought an entire arsenal with me, just in case. A few extra grenades, flashbangs, two more pistols, extra blades, and my rifle. I was not going to walk in there unprepared.

 

I also decided to wear my ‘Harley Quinn’ inspired outfit. A half red/half black pair of shorts, black and white striped thigh highs, with a black long sleeve crop top bearing the Mistfits logo in red to finish it off. Say what you will about me, but at least I can look cute while I kill people.

 

~~

 

When we walked in to the briefing room, my hands were automatically placed on the blades in my belt. Something really bad was about to happen, I felt it in my bones, I just didn’t know what to expect. The stares I got from the Avengers were certainly enough to make my heart stop, then speed up again to an unbelievable pace.

 

Fury motioned to my seat next to Steve and very hungover Natasha, so I sat down. Cap, being the nice guy he is, put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. Agent Coulson was there, and so was a black woman with a curly ponytail and a black and white suit. She stood next to Wade, and solemnly shook her head when he asked her something. If the looks from the Avengers didn’t panic me, then the look on Wade’s face most definitely did.

 

“Bruja, this is going to be hard for you, but I need you to try your best. Okay?” Fury was being unusually nice, and it scared me even more. By now my back was on fire, which caused me to wince, but I nodded anyway. “Alright. Do you recognize this man?” With a look to Coulson, the holographic screen in front of us lit up with the profile of a face I knew all too well. A beautiful, tough, tan facial structure with bright green eyes and a scarred eyebrow on the right side. A strong jaw, a nose with a knot in the middle (from when I accidently broke it during training), thin lips with red spikes below them, and tribal lines spinning and interlocking down his face. I couldn’t see the left side of his head, but I didn’t need to. With a look down, my hand touched our tattoo as tears began to fall and splatter against the table. “That’s him, that’s Thiago.” The hand on my shoulder squeezed again, and I placed my free one on top of it.

 

“And when did he die, approximately?” There was no approximately about it. I knew how long ago it was, down to the second.

 

“One year, seven months, two weeks, three days.” The date swirled around in my head and Kegan began to give me 3rd degree burns. I wept at the pain, which made the man behind me pull his hand away quickly. Or maybe Kegan burned him by accident? Bruce stood up but I shook my head and rubbed the raging scales on my shoulder. Somehow I managed to choke out the question both of us were thinking. “Why Fury, why do you need to know this?”

 

“He was sighted five days ago, at the scene of a murder on Fifth Street. We think he’s trying to find you.”

 

“W-Wait, five days ago? That was when we went and got breakfast at that little place on Fifth, right? How is that possible? I-I-I saw him die he-he--” A sob ripped its way through my throat, and I curled into a ball. Someone came up behind me and touched my back, but immediately pulled away when Kegan’s mark made a hissing sound. I didn’t care enough at that moment to find out who it was. “He died in my arms. That scum out there killed him.” My free hand pointed to the next room, where Bucky Barnes was waiting for his own briefing. “Killed isn’t even the right word for it. There isn’t a word for it. Not slaughtered, not butchered, not…Fuck. He died in my arms, and the only reason I recognized him was…Was…” My hand found its way to the crescent moon again, and I put my head in between my knees.

 

“How is this possible, Nick?” I heard a muffled Bruce walk towards the hologram. When I looked up, he was flipping through the various photos of Thiago. But there was something off about him. I couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something.                                                                   

 

“We don’t know yet.”

 

 _You know what it_ is _, and what it_ could _be. There’s only two options, but the brown eyes gone green is the tell all. Stand up, go find out. Sitting here crying about it isn’t going to figure it out._

I nodded and sniffled. She was right. “It’s one of two things, is-is there a photo of the back of his neck?” Everyone turned and looked at me, surprised to see me slowly making my way towards Bruce and Fury. When they didn’t answer, I gently shoved them away and began flipping through the photos myself. “The first thing it could be, is they’re using his body. It was a new thing the lab boys came up with, but it was still in testing when…When I left. Essentially, they place a small chip on the back of a neck of any dead body, wire it up to the nervous systems, and you could theoretically control it from a chamber in the facility. Since the body was already dead, you could use it until it was blown to pieces. And you better hope that’s what it is.”

 

_That’s not what it is, and you damn well know it_

 

“Why, what’s the other possibility?” Steve leaned forward in his chair with his hands resting on his knees.

 

“We’ll cross that bridge when we… _Shiiit_.” I stopped at a photo of Thiago walking away from the bodies with a rifle. His entire head was shaved, so I got an easy look at his neck. After zooming in and enhancing the photo, I groaned and punched straight through the wall.

 

_This isn’t good._

 

“Yeah Kegan, you think?” The now broken drywall dug into my wrist and I panted for a  


moment, trying to take this in. “They figured it out.”

 

“They figured _what_ out Bruja?” I turned around and looked at the woman next to Wade, who had asked.

 

“They figured out how to bring a dead person back and turn them into another Winter Soldier.”

 

 

~~

 

“Wait, you _what_?!” The black woman, who I learned was Agent Preston, slammed her fist on the table. She was nice to me, which was much appreciated. No wonder Wade liked her so much, you could become best friends with her the first time you meet her. Although I imagine that’s not how it went down when she first met Deadpool.

 

“You heard me Agent. Thiago is here, in restraints.” Fury, being so high and mighty like normal, crossed his arms. Acting like he was not in the wrong made me want to let Kegan burn him alive.

 

“You can’t be serious. You want her to talk to him?” Wade had me in his large arms, letting me cry into his chest. Naturally, he was being defending me, as well as supporting me by trying to hug away the bad news. It actually helped me feel a little better, but not by much.

 

“Yes.”

 

“If they really did figure the serum out, it won’t work for long. It’s a sort of failsafe. It works for about a week, then shuts down the brain. At least, that’s how it was when I left.” My voice was muffled against the scarred chest that I was buried in, but everyone seemed to hear me.

 

“Why?”

 

“So Hydra or SHEILD can’t ‘save’ one and brainwash them—or un-brainwash them I guess. The Bone Initiative lackeys learned from people like The Winter Soldier.” I turned my head towards the scientist who placed his hand on my shoulder a few moments ago.

 

“Miss Bruja, you do not have to go in there alone, or at all.” Thor reached over and grabbed one of my hands gently. Being around so many people that supported me was weird. And even weirder? 90% of them were heroes. Weren’t Superheroes supposed to hate any kill-for-hire like me?

 

“I know, I want to. _We_ want to. He could die again in two days, and I have a few things to say.” I smiled sadly and squeezed the God’s hand. “Take me to him, Fury.”

 

~~

 

“Bruja, is it you?” The familiar face looked up from his spot at the table and stood when he saw me. His thick Spanish accent gave me chills and made my eyes sting with tears so much it was almost unbearable.

 

“It’s me, mi amor.” I ran over and embraced the love of my life. Butterflies filled my stomach as his hand cupped my jaw, allowing his lips access to mine. The first kiss was soft. Tender. The second was a little rougher, full of sadness and the need to replace bad memories. Salty tears covered both of our faces, but neither of us minded. The last time he kissed me, his blood had stained my lips, and he died just seconds afterwards. I would take tears over blood any day of the week. “I’ve missed you so, so much.”

 

“I know, I have too.” He pulled away, but only by a few inches. Thiago’s now brown eyes took the sight of me in (thank any and all of the gods that I caught him in a moment of lucidity). I had grown, albeit not by much. Still short, but I had earned some more muscle. “You look just as gorgeous as I remember. But you should not be here. With me.” He shoved me away and retreated to the corner of the room. When he looked back to me, his eyes had turned green again.

 

“What, why?”

 

“Because you’re my target, little witch. They found out that SHIELD took you, and they want me to deactivate the threat.” That voice didn’t sound right on him. It was too deep, like something made of my worst nightmares. He walked towards me again and threw a solid punch hard enough that I fell to the floor, smacking my head against the wall on the way down. It brought back memories of training together. He had always made sure I was okay, but not this time. Now, we weren’t training and this wasn’t my husband. Not anymore, anyway. “Goodbye, mi amor. You should have known that you could never leave The Bone Initiative.” The sound of a weapon being pulled out snapped my head away from the wall. When I rolled over to face him, I found a gun that was widely known underground a few inches from my forehead. It was from one of the other Earths in the Multiverse, designed by Senator Robert Kelly’s scientist counterpart to destroy anything. In that time stream, he had figured out how to conquer regenerative healing factors and built a few guns capable of killing Human Mutates like Wade Wilson, certain X-Men, and most importantly at that moment, _me_.

 

They sent Thiago after me because they knew I wouldn’t be able to kill him. They were right, I wasn’t going to. Instead, I leaned forward and let him rest the pistol against my face. “If you’re going to do it, then fucking do it.” I seethed at that grin on his face. Their grin, not his. This was not his personality. He was assigned the name Thiago because he always was the best guy a girl could know. A great friend, listener, lover, and an overall amazing person. If this was to be the end of him, then I didn’t want to see it. The gun cocked with a high pitch whine, and I closed my eyes. It was okay, I was ready.

 

“I loved you, Thiago. With all my heart.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I do not condone underage drinking, mixing drinks, or drinking away feelings. It's a bad idea guys!**  
> Also, I'm going off of Comic Book Bruce Banner, not Mark Ruffalo's adaption. So he's in his twenties in this, theoretically.

“I’m sure I loved you too, Bruja.”

 

Just as I was supposed to hear a trigger being pulled, a loud crash replaced it and three people came rushing in. One, that I soon realized was Wade, scooped me up to take me away. Thor, who was the second, was spinning Mjolnir to make violent winds which held Thiago against the wall. The third was large, green, and punching anything he could get his hands on, as hard as he possibly could.

 

Thiago’s screams filled the air as he began to change into the sea serpent within him. Blue scales shone against the bloody floor, his screams slowly turning into growls, those green eyes never once faltering. “Hulk, no! Thiago! Please, no!” I screamed, sobbed, clawed against Wade, and tried my best to get away or grab a weapon. But the man twice my size was significantly stronger than I could ever hope to be in my natural form. When I tried to change, he squeezed so hard that I could breathe, which disturbed the process.

 

Blood sprayed all over the room, and the last thing I saw before Deadpool ran out of the room clutching me tightly in his arms, was Hulk slamming his large fists into Arno’s scaly head. Never having a healing factor in addition to the fact that there was nothing left to bring back, meant that that was the last time Kegan and I would ever see them.

 

~~

 

“I hate you, get off of me! I _hate_ you!” Once we reached my room, he had loosened his grip on me, which I was able to use as an advantage. I positioned my feet on Wade’s chest and kicked out of his arms. He fell backwards against the door as I flung myself across the room, barely managing to save myself from a world of pain with a back extension roll, followed by a back handspring.

 

“You were going to let him shoot you, Bruja! What the fuck was I supposed to do?” He tried to walk towards me, but I was having none of that. Three swift blades were taken out of my belt, expertly thrown from my hands, then quickly restrained him against the wall by his shirt.

 

“How about let me die? I knew what I was doing Wade!” I screamed at him with tears streaming down my face as he pried himself free of my blades, and tried walking forward again. This time, he was met with a sniper rifle to the face. “You let that monster kill him, _in front of me_!” I snarled as the gun cocked. “Get out before I kill you and make Fury drag your body out of here.”

 

Wade just stared at me. “He isn’t a monster. You know it. Hell, you said it yourself.”

 

“ _GO_!” My voice went deep and a little bit of fire came out of my nose when I roared. It took a couple seconds for me to realize that Kegan had spoken, and definitely not me. It worked though. Wade threw his hands up and stormed out. After a few moments, I followed in suit to slam and lock the door behind him.

 

Without permission, my limbs dropped the gun as well as weapons, took me to the fridge, grabbed a six pack of beer (and a Mickey’s Malt Liquor), before walking over to my spot next to the window. While leaning against the window, I opened the 40 ounce with my teeth. The cold glass looked over the city of New York, and somewhere in the distance, I could see a bridge, but didn’t know which one. Before that week, I had never been there. I hated it already. I missed LA. The very few memories I had from there were wonderful. I mean, I was a homeless little punk running around with a caravan of trouble makers, but it was nice. I was free.

 

With a quick breath, I chugged the Mickey’s, trying desperately to wash away the memories. When it failed, I reached over and grabbed a black bottled beer from the six pack, not forgetting to throw the empty one against the wall. Clear glass shards flew in all different directions, including into my arm, but I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel anything.

 

I grabbed my laptop and played the Lucy Ford album by Atmosphere. Thiago loved this artist, and I didn’t blame him. Slowly, I muttered along to the lyrics of the fourth song, his favourite one, on the album. Kegan crawled from my shoulder, down my arm, and hugged my wrist. She rarely moved from my back, but when she did, it was because she was too sad to even bother heating up. I moved my arm to my chest and held her close. Nothing was constant, no one was going to be continuously supportive, nor with me, except her. And although she was a pain in the ass, she was my family. Not Wade, not Peter, definitely not the Avengers. It was Kegan and Bruja vs The World.

 

_I love you, Bruja._

“I love you too, Kegan.” I took a swig of my beer, letting the pungent, yet smooth, taste of Guinness cleanse the disgusting flavor of iron in my mouth. “As much of a bitch as you are, I love you too.”

 

I sat like that, not sleeping, nor crying, barely moving. Just drinking for three whole days. I had gone through four bottles of whiskey, two six packs, and five Mickey’s (I stole some alcohol from various places within the SHIELD building). Somewhere during that time, I realized that it wasn’t Thiago. He wasn’t there once the serum took over. Chances are, he wouldn’t have been there until his last moments. The man that Hulk killed, was not the man I knew.

 

~~

 

It took four days after Thiago’s incident (and one incident of drinking myself dead) for me to decide to get up for food. Music played in the background, I wore an oversized shirt, and lost myself in the art of cooking for a while. _A while_ being the key phrase there. Placid moments never seemed to last with this damned Agency.

 

A small knock at my locked door was enough to make me look up from the meal I was preparing. I thought whoever it was would go away, but they didn’t. So I took one last sip of my water and walked over to the door. Thanks to Wolverine’s genes, I knew who it was as soon as I got within a few feet. Anger began to burn my back, which caused me to hesitate before sliding the deadbolt open and storming away. If Bruce Banner decided to come in, then he would do it without my invitation. When I reached the counter again, I slung a towel over my shoulder and went back to cooking.

 

“It, uh, smells good. What are you making?” I didn’t bother looking up at him, but I could see him in the corner of my eye. It was obvious he was way out of his league, and he knew it. I actually didn’t know if he had ever been in this situation before, considering he ended up accidentally killing his own father. But someone’s spouse?

 

“Vegetarian pizza.” I noticed that he flinched a little when I pulled out a knife to begin cutting my sun dried tomatoes, and cringed again when the blade sliced down onto the poor wooden cutting board a little too hard.

 

“I didn’t know you were vegetarian.” His soft voice was nearly muted by the chopping, but not enough. I just wanted him out of here. I needed space. It wasn’t his fault, but it still hurt damn it!

 

“I don’t like to eat any living thing that I can turn into.” Still, I refused to look at him. I’m not sure if it was because I knew it would ruin those beautiful hazel eyes and that genuine smile, or if it was because he sickened me. And I was so caught up in debating this, I accidentally cut myself. “ _Shit_.”

 

I hadn’t even noticed he was behind me until I felt the towel being pulled off of my shoulder and placed on my hand. “I see you got that from certain comic book characters.” I felt his head shift to the right to look at my stack of Teen Titan comics.

 

“Or maybe they got it from me.” Being so close to this man so soon made me very uncomfortable. I couldn’t stand it, but when I tried to shy away he only held me closer. It took a lot of effort to not break his neck.

 

_Do it. DO IT._

 

“Bruja, I’m sorry. I tried to stop him, the other guy I mean, but he was going to kill you and I know that’s no excu--” He stopped when I put my unharmed hand on his chest and shoved hard enough that he had to take a few steps. “I deserve that, but--”

 

“ _Don’t_. I’m not ready yet. I don’t care about your useless apology, and I probably won’t for a while.” The cut on my hand closed up, and I dropped the bloodstained towel on the floor. “Just, go. Please?”

 

“Okay.” With a deep inhale he ran a hand through his brown locks. We both turned away to get back to doing our own thing, which was supposed to consist of him leaving and me cooking. _Supposed to._ “Oh, um, Fury wanted one of us to ask if you wanted a proper burial for him.”

 

“No.”

 

“It won’t be a big deal, we can—”

 

“ _No_. Just get out, Banner.” He nodded and walked away. It wasn’t our way to have funerals. It never was, because if we did, there would be at least ten every day. So we would say our goodbyes over beer, after they took the body. There was no open casket, no burying, definitely no cemetery. The bodies they didn’t use, they burned and got rid of the ashes. And we just found out what they did with the rest of the dead.

 

After a few moments of silence, I threw the knife across the room and into the wall.

 

 _That felt good. Screw the food, let’s go break something. Or even better, let’s go break_ someone _._

“No, Kegan. I have a better idea.”

 

~~

 

“Wade.” My hand gently rapped on the doorframe of his apartment. The man in front of me was very focused on the rifle he was cleaning, so I didn’t think he heard me. “Wade?” It didn’t take too much effort to look for his address, considering I already hacked into the SHIELD server once. They really needed to beef up their security if both Tony Stark and I, of all people, could get in. We may be smart, but letting a mercenary and a “Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist” who made his fortune on creating weapons, get into your super-secret government mainframe might not be a good idea.

 

“Baby girl, hey! You okay?”

 

“Mmm, that’s debatable.” I was so ashamed of the way I had acted. It wasn’t his fault, nor was it Thor’s, or Bruce’s. I was the one who didn’t want to live, I was the one who couldn’t take Thiago down. If I had just tackled him, knocked him out, done literally anything other than give up, he would be alive and I would be able to look my friends in the eye. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for exploding on you. What happened…It wasn’t your fault. I-I realize that now.” As I leaned against the doorframe, my fingers began fidgeting with a stray strand of hair, which was a terrible habit that I probably needed to stop.

 

“Nah, that’s okay.” Wade still hadn’t looked up from the gun he was oiling. It hurt to see a friend like this, especially one that had the same personality traits as me. When we were hurting, we usually played it off or found something to occupy our hands and minds. Like cooking, drinking, fighting, or cleaning weapons. “Oh, um, Petey and I set up your room. If y’know, you still want to move in.” He pointed to a closed door on the left. It took a second for me to wrap my head around the statement. I was planning on bringing it up anyway, but I didn’t know they already had a room for me.

 

The door opened with a small squeak, and revealed a somewhat empty room. On the left wall was a bed frame with a small mat and blankets (one of those mats you see in a gym at school kind of). He probably knew what it was like to not be comfortable on beds after so long of sleeping on a rough surface. Opposite to that was a wall with a fence-like grid with nails sticking out for holding weapons. A Window Seat looking out to the slums of New York and bookshelf sat adjacent to the door. It was kind of empty, but a nice room considering the small and shitty apartment. Wade’s voice came through the door, but he wasn’t talking to me. He was arguing with the one he called Yellow, I think. “No, Yellow shut up! She said she would do it, and she will. God damn it, shut up!”

 

_What a nut._

 

“God, _shut up_ Kegan! Wade?” As I walked over to him, he curled into a ball with his hands on his ears. “Screw Yellow. What’s that fucker saying?” I gently placed my forehead on his back once I sat down next to him on the couch.

 

“He’s saying you hate us, and you won’t move in.” The voice that came from the man didn’t match him. It sounded pained, helpless even. God damn the ones who condemned this to him, to _us_.

 

“He’s wrong. It’s actually quite the contrary.” I tried my best to sound soothing, and apparently it worked. Wade slowly turned around to look at me with those beautiful eyes of his. Well, ours I guess. “I can’t live at SHIELD anymore. Not after what happened. And honestly? There’s no other home I’d rather be in than this one.”

 

Wade’s scarred face lit up with a sappy grin. “Really?”

 

“Really!” Both of us laughed stupid smiles, which made an idea some to mind. “Ooh! How about this, you help me go get my stuff and then I kick your ass at Xbox?”

 

“You can’t kick _my_ ass! I’m the best there is!” There came that childish pout again. It made me really happy that I didn’t inherit that gene from him.

 

“Wanna bet?”

 

“You’re on.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, because Chapter seven is 10 pages on Microsoft Word. Also, the COD round is based off of One in the Chamber, in Black Ops 1

“You realize the bad guys are the other way? Here give it to me!” Wade was backseat-gaming while simultaneously trying to take away my controller. He had died a few moments ago, a player had somehow survived two full mags and ended up killing Wade with one knife to the knee.

 

_Classic COD_

 

“Damn dude, would you trust me? I’m going to die if you keep doing that!” Before he tackled me, I had been laying on my back with my legs resting in his lap. But once he did tackle me, I had to lift up onto my elbows to place my feet on his chest. “Just -would you- look!” There was a small hallway that led to a small foyer. The other players in the game had run out of bullets and were foolishly running straight into my trap.

 

“Oh.” The merc relaxed, which put all of his weight onto my legs. “You waited till they were out of ammo to bottleneck them. Damn baby girl, you’re brilliant!”

 

I weezed against his mass. “Yeah, I am, now pleeeaaasseeeee get off of me you big oaf!”

 

“Heh, sorry.” Once his weight was off of me, I coughed a little. “Look, it’ll take twenty minutes tops to get your stuff, I promise okay? And afterwards we’ll get Mexican and ice cream. In and out, real quick. Consider it Operation... Operation Secret Move.” When I giggled, Wade’s hand found its way to my shoulder.

 

“Fine, let’s go.”

 

~~

 

_Alright, get your clothes, bandages for your knuckles, bathroom stuff, food (alcohol), and don’t forget your weapons or punching bag. Seriously, don’t forget the punching bag._

“Alright Kegan, I hear you. Punching bag is #1 on your list. Wade, would you mind?” Somehow through the chaos in my head, I managed to look over to Wade and point out the large sandbag. Once he began to take that down, I went back to packing (which meant I was throwing everything I had into the black chest), while muttering to myself frantically. I hadn’t even noticed that Captain America had walked in and took the Punching Bag from Wade.

 

“I hear you’re leaving, Bruja? Moving in with Wade and Peter?”

 

“Mhm, I’ll be back though. Probably every day until we complete my mission.” My hands left the trunk and pushed the long black hair away from my face.

 

“You’ll have to see us after that, Peter is our son after all.” A small grin played on the hero’s lips, and a shocked look played on mine.

 

“Wait, what?” My eyes immediately looked over to Wade, who was using his foot to play with the carpet. “Why didn’t I know that?” The man who held my gaze shrugged, but soon lost my interest when I saw a brown haired man with glasses pass by. I needed to talk to Bruce, as much as I didn’t want to. “Mm, hold that thought.” The last of my belongings flew into my makeshift dresser, then I quickly ran out of my old room to chase the scientist.

 

~~

 

I lost him after a few moments, and had to ask an agent for help. Which was annoying considering I don’t really like people.

 

_I guess we got that from Wolverine._

 

Thankfully, the agent left before I had to thank them, leaving me alone with the man in front of me. Bruce was muttering to himself, chewing on the end of his glasses gently. On the hologram in front of him was the blueprint of the facility that haunted my heart. The one that ruined me, and the one that killed my daughter Isa, brainwashed my husband. “Where did you get this?”

 

The rolling chair Bruce was sitting on spun around wildly and nearly tossed the man across the room. Banner was a giant dork, you couldn’t deny it. “Bruja! I, um, Fury gave them to me.”

 

“Why?”

 

“The lab. He wanted me to find it.”

 

“Asswipe could have asked me.” I huffed and walked past him, making sure to gently place my hand on his shoulder. I couldn’t look him in the eye yet, but at least with that small contact, he would know that I didn’t hate him. “It’s here and here. One for the Sick and dying, I mean the surgeries. And one for the… Other things.” The things they did to Thiago. More things I couldn’t even imagine. I imagine Fury was looking for the latter of the two and not the former. It didn’t matter much to me, I was taking it all down. I was saving them all.

 

“Hm. I see.” Again, Bruce’s glasses found their way to his teeth. “Oh, Fury wanted me to talk to you when I saw you.”

 

“Not about the funeral, I hope?”

 

“No. He wanted to talk about the type of mutants there are in the facility. How many, what to expect, the entire ‘run down.’ You know him.” I hummed at his statement. I would eventually get around to talking to him. By eventually, I meant then without knowing it. I had planned on dealing with him later, but apparently an agent decided to report that I had entered the SHIELD building.

 

“Ah! Bruja, about time I saw you. We need to talk.” Nick’s (annoying, cocky, arrogant) voice piped up behind me. With a large sigh, I turned to face him with the best smile I could muster. It probably looked more than a little sarcastic.

 

“Hello, Fury. I heard about your questions. Ask away.”

 

“Well, my biggest question is, would we be better off to recruit the X-Men?”


	8. Chapter 8

“That’s cute, borderline adorable. You really think Charles Xavier is really going to let his students and precious X-Men help on a revenge mission?” Humor filled my words and tried at my face.

 

_Oh man, that is the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while._

 

“It is _not_ a revenge mission for anyone but you, Agent Bruja.”

 

“Do not call me that. I am not a SHIELD agent. Never will I work for people like you. I will work with you, and then I’m done. Out.” I already had a team. SHIELD was helping me with one mission and then I would be gone. AWOL, if necessary.

 

“Mmm. Sure. Look, I set up a meeting with Professor Xavier for you tomorrow. Be there or SHIELD will not help you with your mission.”

 

_What an asshole._

“Baby girl, ready to go?” Thank god, Wade Wilson, my savior.

 

“Yes. Let’s go.” With closed eyes, I smiled at Bruce, then turned to Fury and glared. Before shifting to a 7ft tall man, and carrying my stuff out of SHIELD, that is.

 

~~

 

_Stupid Fury. Who is he to tell us what to do? Heartless fucker thinks he can take our revenge away? Thinks he can—_

“FUCK!” My bare knuckles hit the rough canvas wrapped around the large bag of sand. Loud cracks echoed around my new room, but were easily muffled by the loud music playing from Wade’s room. Peter came over a few hours ago and the two had been locked away for most of that time. I didn’t care about what they were doing, all that mattered to me was what was in my head. I couldn’t deal with how angry I was. I’d been using the punching bag for hours. My arms ached and my knuckles burned from the multiple times I had broken them. With one last punch, I collapsed against the wall and slid down to the floor. Tears nipped at my eyes before falling and soaking into the carpet below me.

 

_Aw, hey, don’t cry… It’s going to be okay. Oh! How about we go sightseeing to get your mind off of things?_

“At 2 in the morning?” The clock on the nightstand beside my new bed was a bright blue illuminating the room well enough that I didn’t need a light on. Even if it wasn’t there though, I could just change my eyes to night vision, so whatever.

 

_Well, you can fly, and this is the city than never sleeps!_

“Alright, let’s do it.” Slowly, I stood and put on a tank top. Training was always easiest in underwear and a sports bra. I also picked up a certain necklace and wrapped it around my neck as tight as I could without choking. It had a dog tag with a number to call, along with instructions for EMTs or doctors, in case anything happened to me (the essentials: “Put me somewhere comfy with lots of vegetarian Mexican food and I’ll wake up in a few days.” With a symbol that mutants had begun using to tell any medical official that they had a regenerative healing factor and were probably okay. The sign was the Alchemical symbol for Antimony. Though, no one really knew why. I always guessed that it was because the Antimony symbol represents animal tendencies in humanity, and reminds you of the power that dwells in you).

 

When I opened my door, the first thing I was greeted with was a moan that sounded like it was probably from Peter, which was followed by Wade going “Shush baby boy, we don’t want to wake up our company.” Even from there, I could hear the smirk of his face and I wanted none of it. To my left was the balcony, so I hightailed it out of there as quick as possible.

 

The apartment was easily fifteen stories up, which was nice. It would give me some time to feel the wind before I needed to shift. “Alright, Kegan, what’s the winged creature for the night?”

 

_I’m going to assume not me._

“You should use your head more often, I like it when you’re being smart. Not you, you’ve only been out once in a year and considering I have an appointment at…” I took my phone from my pocket and looked at the text from Fury. “10AM tomorrow, I would like to take it easy tonight.” With a sigh, I plunked it down onto the table behind me and stretched.

 

_Fine. How about a bald eagle? Let fuck with some people._

“Yes, let’s get captured by the government and stuck in a facility to bring the Bald Eagles back from the brink of extinction. Brilliant.” The bars were cold when I stood on them, considering I wasn’t wearing pants or shoes. The roof crumbled a little bit in my hands, but that was alright. A little drywall never hurt anyone. Probably. There was a small breeze that smelled of smog, and when it ruffled my hair, I got excited. It had been a long time since I’d gone flying.

 

_They don’t do that. Do they?_ With an annoyed glare, she surrendered. _Okay, okay. Fine. Just do a bat, those are common in New York, right?_

I shrugged and made an ‘I dunno’ sound. “A bat works, here’s hoping no one will yell _CHUPECABRA_ and shoot at us, like that one time.”

 

_Didn’t we actually change into the Chupecabra after that, just to scare him? Haha, that was fun. His blood tasted weird though, now that I think about it._

“You’re disgusting, my friend.” After a deep breath, I leaned forward and let myself fall off of the bars. Cold air whipped around me as I watched the ground grow closer and closer at an almost alarming rate. _Almost._ People screamed and watched with horror, fearing my death. I think I even winked at one. Just when I was maybe twenty feet away, my bones tingled as I begun to take the shape.

 

The velvety feeling of my new skin, stretched over small bones felt amazing, even with a chain wrapped around my neck. I felt free for once in a long while. Air beneath my wings took me up above the city to see all of the lights. Even Kegan was speechless when she saw this. Millions of lights spread over millions of miles. Millions of stores, people, cars, weapons, drugs. Thousands of schools, hospitals. It was utterly amazing, and it took more than just my breath.

 

~~

 

“You were out late. Where were you?” Wade stood in the kitchen with a coffee mug when I came back. The sun was coming up, so it must have been close to 6:30, I’d been out for four hours. So much for taking it easy.

 

“Wow, good morning technical dad. I was out sightseeing.” The floor creaked when I walked in from the balcony. Thankfully, Wade elected to ignore my lack of pants, probably because I was wearing boyshorts.

 

“At three in the morning?” The look he gave me was weird. I had never gotten a parental look before, and needless to say, I didn’t like it. “Here, have this.” I nearly jumped at the offered coffee.

 

_Coffee is good for you, screw anyone who says otherwise._

 

“Thank you.” With a hum into my cup, I nearly moaned against the warmth emitting from it. “I left at two, actually. And yeah, when you can shift into anything in a city that never sleeps, why not?”

 

“Because you have an appointment with Prof. X in three and a half hours.” Wade growled at me. Why was this happening? He’s not my actual father, just a shared DNA roomie.

 

“Thank you. I nearly forgot about the nerve-wracking consultation with a complete stranger who can read minds.” I nearly slammed the cup on the counter. “Don’t patronize me, you’re not my dad. Okay? I don’t need your permission to go practice using one of my forms. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to sleep for an hour, then go get ready.”

 

_Damn. Harsh._

“Shut up Kegan.”

 

~~

 

“He’s through there. I’ll stay here, he doesn’t like me that much.” Tony Stark leaned against the Aven-jet we had taken, playing with some wiring on his arm.

 

“Oh great, I get to see him alone. Thanks, soon-to-be technical grandpa.” I knew he didn’t like Wade, and he liked Wade even more than he liked feeling old. The groans I got while walking away was enough pleasure from my revenge to make meeting this mutant guy alone, totally okay. It would be okay, right?

 

_Calm your anxiety, it’s fine. You aren’t alone, I’m here._

 

“Yeah, because you’re the best company there is.” I didn’t mean to be rude, and she knew it. I just acted out when nervous. But the room that was his office, nearly took that away. It was large and wooden with small knickknacks and collectables. There was a hearth, desk, at least ten full bookshelves (I was a little jealous), a file cabinet labeled ‘Students,’ and another labeled ‘X-Men,’ and a small cabinet of drinks. It was nice, and I couldn’t deny it. Homely, almost.

 

_Hah, please. As if you knew what home felt like._

“That wasn’t very nice of her, now was it?” A (undeniably) soothing voice came from a bald man in a wheelchair behind me. “Do you like it, Bruja? I’m trying to make it feel comfortable for others. After all, this is a school, and I would like my students to feel at home here.”

 

_How did he know your name? How did he hear me?_

“Professor Xavier, I take it.” He smiled at me and took my hand gently when I held it out. Though I had never been in a situation like this before, I knew how to talk to people you were getting something from. Whether it was a job, help for a job, or information (that didn’t require torture, which I was also very good at), I knew how to do it with a certain type of elegance. “It is a pleasure to meet you. And, yes. The room is quite nice.”

 

_Heh. Look at you, getting back in the groove. Maybe we’ll have another contract soon. I just hope that we can get out of here without seeing Wolvie._

 

“Worry not, girls. Logan is not here.” Charles motioned to the seat in front of his desk, and began to pour us a drink. Smelled like Sweet Tea, which I had not had since my mission in Louisiana, three years ago. It was Mardi Gras and after the contract was completed, HQ gave me the OK to stay for the parade. It was wonderful. “Three years? That is quite a long time. I’m glad you at least had fun while you were there.” The smile I received from him was kindly. Charles Xavier was a good man, despite the things in his past. He had skeletons in his closet. I did not know them, nor did I need/want to. All I knew was that they made him a better man. “Nevertheless, I am curious as to why you don’t want to meet him? Logan, that is.”

 

“I’m sorry, it’s a little hard to think with someone in your head. One that isn’t always there, anyway.”

 

“My apologies. I am a curious person by nature.”

 

“I’m sure you already know that my two DNA donors were Wade Wilson and James Howlett, or Deadpool and Wolverine.”

 

“I do, and I see you have done your research on them both.”

 

I nodded and sipped the cold drink in my hands. “Yes, it wasn’t too hard to locate my file, which had all of the information I would ever need. Meeting Wade was the only time I would prefer to go through that.” With a sigh, I looked away from his eyes. They were looking past me. Into my head, and I didn’t like it. He knew that wasn’t the truth. “Honestly, I don’t know why.”

 

“You’re scared, which is quite alright.”

 

“Apprehensive.” My head whipped back to him with a certain look. One that wasn’t angry or, well, anything else. It was sort of monotone. “People like me don’t fear anything, Professor. Nonetheless, I would like to get to the matter at hand.”

 

“Ah, yes. La Iniciativa de Hueso. Fury said you may need our help, due to the amount of mutants there.”

 

“Perhaps. There are too many types of us to mention. Fortunately, we won’t have to deal with anyone like me and Kegan. However, there are worrisome characters.”

 

“The White and Black Inks.”

 

“Yes. The Red Inks will no doubt follow me, they are loyal like that. We were close with the Purple Inks, so they will not be a problem. But the monsters…” The first thought that came to mind was the time I had to take down ten Black Inks with only two of my men. They had gone rogue and were slaughtering people. By the time we got there, they had killed nearly twenty of the thirty White Ink trainees, and had only devoured half of them. I lost two good men that day and a few friends. I knew that Charles saw this memory, there was a point to it. He needed to understand what sorts of creatures his men and women would be going up against. “They will be an issue, to say the least.”

 

“My, my. I am sorry you had to see that. I believe we may be able to--” Before the Professor could finish his sentence, the door to his office burst open. A short, hairy man walked in, followed by a black woman with white hair (but not old?), a man with the weirdest glasses I had ever seen, and a black haired woman with a streak of white in it. The X-Men. Well, some of them anyway. Immediately, I stood and faced the four with fists raised.

 

_God damn it! I thought Logan wasn’t here. Get out of there, Bruja!_

 

Logan walked around me, sniffing gently. No doubt he could smell his DNA on me, but could he tell that’s what it was? My eyes stayed trained on him, if he made one move in the wrong direction, there would be a bullet in his head so quick it would spin. “Why do you smell like me? Were you going through my things? You smell like…. _Wade_ too. What are you two doing here?”

 

My nose bunched up at the accusation. Why would I do that if I didn’t even want to meet him? “No! Damn dude, I just met you. Back off. I’m here because I have an appointment with the Professor.” I could tell that he didn’t believe me, so my fingers slowly traced my belt until they met the cold handle of a weapon. It didn’t even matter which one.

 

“Then why do you smell like me? Huh?” A small _snikt_ sound was heard as the legendary claws slid out from in between his knuckles, and I pulled out my SIG.

_What do we do? Do we lie? What’s a lie he’ll believe? Umm, how about Wade was going through his stuff and we’re just with him!_

“That won’t be necessary, Kegan.” Professor X had come around from his side of the desk to try and calm Wolverine.

 

_Oh what, I’m just supposed to trust this guy? Telepaths are bad news, Bruja. You know it._

“Damn it, Kegan, shut up. Yes I trust Professor Xavier and if you don’t trust him, then trust _me._ ” As I said this, the look I received from the X-Men made me want to crawl out of my skin. They thought I was insane.

 

“Logan, this is Bruja. She was part of a program much like Weapon X. She has come here for our help.”

 

“I ain’t interested. So fuck off.”

 

_This is why we didn’t want to meet him. We didn’t want to see that side of our DNA. So quick to judge, so quick to take away help. Fuck him, fuck this place, let’s go._

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. So I put the gun in its holster and turned to leave. “Thank you for your time, Professor. But SHIELD will not be needing your assistance, nor will I.” The door slammed behind me, and I could hear Logan yelling about me. Fuck him, I don’t need their help. Just as I was going to yell to Tony, my phone began to ring. It was Fury. Why is it that I never got a calm moment around here?

 

“Bruja, we need you back at the Helicarrier immediately. There’s a situation.”

 

With a heavy sigh, I replied. “What type of situation, Fury?”

 

“We believe they’re one of yours, pyrotechnic abilities and covered in tattoos. They don’t match any profile on the SHIELD database.” In the background, I could hear Hulk yelling, things being thrown around, and guns being shot.

 

“What?” My eyes went wide, and Kegan slowly began to heat up my back. “Describe them to me. What colour is the tattoo?” I began running and flagged down Stark, so he could start the jet.

 

“Which one?”

 

“Are they male of female?” Silence took over the call for a moment, and I heard a crash. “Fury? Answer me, I need to know!”

 

“Male!” His voice sounded pained.

 

“Okay, the tattoo on the right side of his face, what’s the color?”

 

“Red!” At this answer, I great sigh of relief came through. I knew exactly who it was.

 

“Alright, I know who it is. He has a healing factor, so feel free to rough him up a bit. He can handle it.”

 

“Bruja?”

 

“Just do it. I haven’t seen him in a long time, and chances are he needs the practice.” I quickly hung up the phone, and buckled into the plane. “Tony, to the SHIELD Helicarrier. I have a guest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Males have the identification tattoos on the right, whereas women have them on the left.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed Bruja from 16 to 19, so she had been there for ten years instead of five, just a heads up.  
> Diablo: http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140917112931/marvel_dc/images/2/2c/El_Diablo_Prime_Earth_0001.jpg  
> Translations:  
> Cállate: Shut up  
> Jefe: Boss

Fires were burning in various places around the carrier, and the sirens were again blaring. Tony had dropped me off so he could go suit up, so I was alone on a ship I didn’t know. And I didn’t know where the Avengers were, so I shifted into a snake and waited. Although snakes are deaf, they are sensitive to vibrations, which would give me a general direction to go towards. I could smell sulphur, and for some reason, Kegan began giving off the chemical properties. “Damn it, cállate! I know that Sulphur has an atomic number of 16. You’re smart, I get it.” Annoyance almost ruined my good mood, but I was too excited to let that happen.

 

Three levels below us, near the bridge, there was a certain amount of heat and I could feel things being thrown around. That would be him. I changed back into my human form and ran as fast as my short legs would take me. Once I reached the hallway that led to various places, including the bridge, the Hulk flew through one of the doors and hit the wall with a crash. The flames that pushed him began to die down as I heard Captain America yell and attack in the other room. With a roll of my eyes, I walked over to Hulk and placed my hand on his arm. Without either of us flinching his fist swung towards me, but stopped inches from my face. “Bruja?”

 

I smiled at the green man in front of me. It hurt to, but I managed. “It’s alright, I’ve got this. Go calm down, yeah?” My hand reached up and tapped his cheek gently before I turned to walk through the now destroyed door. Inside, the Avengers (including someone named Falcon) were standing around the man who had his back to me, ready to fight. But with a smile, I waved them all off. “Stand down, Diablo.”

 

Diablo was one of our most promising assassins. If it weren’t for the Alpha/Beta system, he would easily be running the Red Ink (But then again, I am pretty badass). The Mexican man turned towards me with a smile. “Alpha!” And before I knew it, I was wrapped up in the large tattooed arms. He smelled like the Facility, sterile and metallic. That didn’t matter though, I was just happy to see someone who knew me so well. So I pushed the smell down and laughed against his bare chest. He was named Diablo, not only because of his pyrokinesis, but also because he looked exactly like El Diablo of the Suicide Squad (new 52 series). Except for his pitch black eyes and being nearly ten years younger. Even for 19, Diablo was huge and could easily pass for twice that. “Are you okay, Alpha? I heard you were here and came to get you.”

 

“I’m slightly offended, Dia. You think I can’t handle myself against these dorks?” Hawkeye scoffed at my comment and flung an arrow my way, which I caught between my fingers with a glare. “I’m fine. But we have stuff to talk about. Do you still have your nano’s?” Everyone was listening, and I heard Natasha ask what I meant by ‘nano’s,’ but I didn’t answer. I would do it later. Diablo shook his head at my question, and I nodded in return. It must have taken him ages to get them out without me there. “Good, let’s go. Oh, also,” I turned to Steve. “Get Fury to call the X-Men for a meeting. Now that I have Diablo here, we have updated Intel and I’m ready to plan this thing.”

 

“What thing, jefe?”

 

“We, my dear pyro, are going to burn that damned facility to the ground.”

 

~~

 

“Wade, Peter, you guys here?” I yelled for my roommates, but they seemed to be gone. Diablo and I both needed rest. I had only gotten a half hour of sleep last night (my fault, in all fairness), and he had been fighting as well as regenerating for at least a few hours. “Alright, food and sleep?” I ran exhausted fingers through my long hair, and he nodded at me.

 

“Sleep first.” The deep accent, much like Thiago’s, helped me feel a little at home. I belong around other Red Inks, they are my home.

 

“Yeah? Alright, come here.” I gently grabbed his hand and pulled him to my room. There wasn’t enough room on the bed for both of us, so I shifted into a cat. Once he plopped down onto the bed, I jumped up onto his chest.

 

We slept for many hours. By the time we woke up, the sun had gone down, and we could hear Wade playing Xbox in the next room. Somehow, I had shifted back into a human mid-sleep, and Diablo and I were shamelessly cuddling. It wasn’t the first time either. A few years back, we had a mission together in Nevada to deal with some mutant gone rogue. They had enough power to make the entire state a new Antarctica. By the time we got there, Las Vegas had 10 feet of snow. During the nights, Kegan was too young to cause the heat she does now, so we were forced to cuddle. Not that either of us minded, because we were close and that guy’s head earned us _a lot_ of money. I was still a young Alpha back then. I had no idea how to lead.

 

I giggled softly at the memory, yawned, and stretched. For a few seconds, I felt a little suffocated before realizing Diablo was spooning me. “Hey, wake up you big klutz.” My elbow gently found its way to his ribs until he woke up. Once he did, he gently buried his head in the crook of my neck and grumbled a small ‘noo,’ which earned a groan from me. “Come on, get uhh-” My throat couldn’t contain a squeal as Diablo began to tickle me. “Ah, no, stop it!” Laughs filled the air as I slapped his arms. “I hate you.”

 

“No you don’t, Alpha.” Strong arms picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. “Food.” I couldn’t see the door, but I heard it open. On the other side, I heard Wade call Peter. Still, my laughs filled the area around us, which I think calmed Wade a little.

 

“Hey guys,” It came out more as a giggle than a statement as Diablo turned towards the kitchen (which allowed me to look at the boys). Peter and his web shooters stood slightly behind Wade, who now had a gun in one hand and a katana in the other. “Woah, guys. Stand down, it’s okay. This is Diablo,” My hand tapped the back I was on. “Friendly.”

 

I yelped again as Diablo’s big hand pinched my thigh. “And hungry.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. If you put me down I could make something.” I managed to peck Dia’s cheek as he let me down. He always was one of my best friends.

 

“No time, the meeting is at 10, which is in an hour.” Peter seemed just as happy about it as we were (we weren’t). “We should leave now, if we want to get there on time.”

 

“Let’s go.” Diablo stepped forward, but I stopped him. “Wade, Peter, get going. We’ll meet you there. Bruja and I need to talk.”

 

~~

 

“Bruja, what’s going on?” Seeing the worried look on my face, he placed his hand on top of the one I placed on his chest. “What is wrong, Alpha?”

 

“Look, I got warning ahead of time. He’s going to be there.” Diablo didn’t need an explanation. Bucky Barnes was responsible for more than just Thiago’s death. Diablo had three sisters, and one of them was the Purple Ink Beta. She was killed the same day as Thiago, but much slower, even more painfully, and there was a lot more blood. When I found Dia, his powers were uncontrollable. I nearly burned alive that day, which would have been hilarious considering my name is ‘Witch.’

 

“Bruja, I don’t know if I can go then. I might kill him.”

 

With a pained look, I placed my hand on his cheek to wipe away the tear that began to fall. After it was gone, I gently traced the tattoo on his face, and placed my forehead on his. “No, you won’t. Because I will be there, and it will be okay. I promise.”

 

~~

 

It took four hours for us to get everyone together, and then another hour for Fury to get me introduced to them all. Peter, Wade, Agent Coulson, Agent Preston, The Avengers, and the new guy Falcon where all there. From SHIELD’s ‘Mini-Avengers’ (as I liked to call them), there was Nova, Iron Fist, White Tiger and Luke Cage (AKA Power Man).

 

Professor X brought along the people I met in his office, who were named Rogue, Cyclops, Storm, and, of course, Wolverine. Along with them, there was Beast, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Gambit, and Angel. Some extra students and agents were there too. Overall, it was quite the turn out. But fifty five (Including Diablo, Fury, and myself) were not going to be able to take down a facility of nearly 2,500 without help.

 

When Diablo saw Bucky, I had to put both hands on his bare chest and force him to look me in the eye. His black eyes showed nothing if not anger and pain, but mine told Diablo that one day we would get our revenge, but right now we needed The Winter Soldier (which I absolutely loathed).

 

The meeting room we all sat in was huge, and I was at the front. God, I hadn’t done a de-briefing like this in a very long time. But even then, I knew everyone personally. I had trained with all of them. Anxiety burned my back, and it took Diablo’s hand on the small of my back (which earned a jealous look from Bruce) to get me to speak up. “Thanks for coming everyone. Listen, there’s not enough of us here, I trust you are all smart enough to know that. But inside the facility,” with a swipe of two fingers, I pulled up the blueprints of La Iniciativa de Hueso on the hologram. “There are 1,000 soldiers willing to help us. I know this because once I set foot back in there, the Red Inks will rise to their returning leader, and the Purple Inks will rise against the ones who kill them.”

 

“Sorry to interrupt, but how exactly do you know this?” A large blue man, named Hank AKA Beast spoke up from next to the Professor.

 

“No, that’s alright. I know this because I trained with every single one of the people assigned to an Ink in that facility. I know all of them on a deep personal level, except for the 500 new people. I have learned that Dr. Dominic Maddox has started taking in new ‘recruits.’”

 

“They aren’t volunteers, are they?” White Tiger sounded quiet, as if she didn’t want to know the answer. But she got it anyway.

 

“No. Chances are, they are sick and/or homeless children who either didn’t know what they were signing up for, or they were taken from the streets. If it is as Diablo says, and as I remember, then the newbies aren’t any older than 10, max.” This earned a few gasps from around the room, and I could tell people getting shaky. So I sighed and leveled with them. “Look, I’m going to be honest. They have figured out how to bring the dead back, so I have no idea who we’ll see in there.” A small twinge in my heart stopped me mid thought, as I thought of Thiago and the possibility that Isa was alive. “But I do know that I have seen people torn apart and eaten alive by little kids in there. You are going to face teens and young ones that are no longer human. I know that the X-Men and Avengers try to save everyone, but I need you to listen to me. Ones that are marked with either Black or White Ink, are not to be trusted.”

 

“Why, Bruja?” Prof. X knew the answer, but everyone else needed to hear it. I knew that. But I closed my eyes and squeezed Diablo’s hand for strength. He knew how to calm me down, so his hands cupped mine and warmed up slightly.

 

“Black Inks are the ones who have lost control over their shifting and/or ones that have lost their minds. Think of the craziest person you know or have read about.” Most every face turned to Wade. “No, not like Deadpool, he’s actually perfectly sane compared to the ones down there. Like Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. Real monsters that lost it completely, and want nothing more than to eat, kill, eat, kill. Black Inks will not stop until they rip you to shreds and in some cases, drink your blood.”

 

“And White Inks are master manipulators. They have been trained to pass Polygraph Tests when they are lying. You can never know where their loyalties lie. White and Black Inks are both prone to Stockholm Syndrome, so they will most likely be working with the facility. You can _never_ trust one of them.” Diablo stepped in. I knew it was painful for him, considering one of his little sisters was White Ink until he was forced to kill her. “Not even for a second.”

 

“So we’re expected to just kill half of the people in there?” I didn’t care who spoke this time, I only cared about the answer.

 

“Well, kind of. The total people we will hopefully be saving adds up to about 1,500. 250 Reds, 250 Purples, and 500 unassigned.” Dia didn’t know that that answer was the wrong one, but I didn’t have time to step in.

 

“And the approximate kill count?”

 

I looked over to Fury solemnly. “About 1,000, including guards and staff.”

 

“This is insanity! You expect us to kill _one thousand men, women, and children._ ” Scott Summers (AKA Cyclops) stood up and slammed his fist on the desk. “Let me run that by you again. One. Thousand. Men. Women. And children.”

 

I slapped the table hard enough that it shook. “ _No_. You will not kill anyone unless it is absolutely necessary. You will let the 1,000 Inks get their revenge. I expect you to save the ones who are too sick to fight and the children who need help.” No one was going to take away our vengeance. “That is your mission.”

 

“You will not be killing anyone.” Fury, of course. Not only ruining the fun, but acting like he owned me. Wonderful.

 

“Alright, first of all, I’m not an agent so you don’t get to do that. Second of all, when has not killing an enemy ever worked out for you? Doom still lives on Latveria, and he starts trouble all the time. Taskmaster, Green Goblin, Magneto. You name it. They live, they start shit. If we do not kill Dr. Maddox or the staff, La Iniciativa de Hueso _will_ come back. I promise you that.” Everything went silent for a few moments. I took my time looking every single person in the face to make sure they understood. “Third of all, all patients have nanobots in their bloodstream. Unless they are like Diablo and me, then they could potentially self-destruct at any time.”

 

“What do you mean, ‘like you two’?” Logan was sitting next to Wade. Well, was. He stood up, and I wanted to punch him.

 

“We have regenerative healing factors, which means we can bleed ourselves out completely to get rid of them, then come back.”

 

“Doesn’t everyone there?” Wade spoke this time. “Didn’t they all get my DNA? Logan’s too?”

 

“No. Only a fourth of us got your DNA (500 of us) separately, but only a sixteenth of us got a mix of the two.” I sighed. “There were 126 people with the same DNA trials as me, but most of them died. It was a gamble. You either got Wade’s cancer, or Wade’s healing factor. The same goes with Logan. You got one thing or something else.”

 

“We’re getting off the point.” Bucky Barnes leaned forward. “Let’s get to the plan.”

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do notice how I turned on the Rape/Non-Con warning. There won't be a rape scene, but there will be one where she is violated medically without consent. I'll let you know before it happens though.

12 grueling hours we were there. Hammering out the details of who is going where, figuring out how and when we’re getting in. The plan ended up being simple. Turns out, The Bone Initiative had a bounty on my head. So Diablo would turn me in, and from there, everything would go smoothly. And, unfortunately, I would be returning to hell in approximately twelve more hours. Nerves wracked my entire body and once we got home, I puked. Four times. “Let it out, Baby Girl. Petey’s bringing you some broth.”

 

Wade rubbed my back as I hugged the toilet. Due to having an empty stomach, my entire body began to shake, making my bones feel like the cancer had flared up again. The truth is, the cancer never really went away, and every now and again the tumors would fight my healing factor and flare up, causing indescribable agony. “Wade,” I couldn’t stop the coughing, but managed to choke out a few words. “It’s the cancer, I’ll be ok--” Gagging took over my throat again, and bile came up, burning everything on its way.

 

“I’ve seen this before.” Diablo walked in holding a blanket. “We have to get her to the couch. If we don’t, she’ll sit there all night. But her healing factor should kick in soon.”

 

“I don’t know what that will do.” Peter walked in holding a thermos that smelled way too delicious for my own good. “Here, vegetable broth for my favorite mercenary.” That comment earned a jealous groan from Wade, which was easily waved off by a smile and a kiss. Though I easily ignored the envy in my heart when Diablo picked me up with a kiss of his own.

 

“Oh, stop it you ass kisser.”

 

“Forehead kisser, actually.” With a scoff, I curled up into his arms, while pulling the blanket around me. Once he sat down on the couch, I placed a hand on his chest and did my best to calm down. Eventually, I fell into a painful yet deep sleep full of memories. And not the good kind.

 

~~

 

_“I was summoned?” I walked into the Red Ink corridor, in a particularly foul mood._

_“Yes, Alpha. It’s Isa.” After a panicked look, I took off running as fast as I could, and the woman began to race after me. Though that wasn’t too hard for her, she was one of the mutants with super speed. “We fear she won’t make it through the night.”_

_Once we reached the door to the female barracks, I inhaled a sharp breath to prepare myself. “Send for Beta Thiago, and the medic. She will be staying with us tonight, in our room at the Leader’s Hall.”_

_“But Alpha, that isn’t-”_

_“DO IT.” With a panicked look, the smaller woman ran as fast as she could towards the male barracks. Again, I closed my eyes and tried to prepare myself. Kegan was already mourning, and I could only imagine how Arno would feel. The metal door opened with a hiss and whoosh of air, allowing me to see the new recruits that I had yet to meet._

**_They don’t even have their tattoos yet, how cute._ **

_One of them looked like about twenty, and was bragging about being the best shot in her state at age 11. I was already in a bad mood, but after the news I just got, I was having none of their bull. “Congratu-fucking-lations, noob. But we were already killing people by then. So when I see you in training tomorrow, I fully expect you to be humble as pie. Got it?” My back straightened, and my legs stretched so I became taller than her. When she nodded, I turned to one of the vets who was laughing. “Marίa, where is Isa?” The laughter quickly drained from Marίa’s face, as she turned and looked to the medical half of the room. I nodded my thanks, shot a look to the newbie, and made my way to my daughter. Faintly, I heard the fresh meat go ‘Who the hell was that?’ To which Marίa had replied ‘That’s the Red Ink Alpha. And if you don’t want to be burned alive, you best stay out of her way.’ I hated being made out as heartless to the new ones, really I did. But a certain stance of dominance must be made and that is the way things are done around here. They would eventually earn my love and praise._

_“Isa?” My head ducked around the curtain and let saw the one girl I would love with all my heart. Her brown hair had been shaved off and was merely stubble now, but that didn’t take away her beauty. Her dark skin gave her blue eyes (From Wade) a soul-hauntingly beautiful glow, and freckles littered across the area below the red flower on her face. Despite being born in Wisconsin, Isa had a thick Mississippi accent from when she had moved there years ago. A Purple Ink had found her hurting, cold, homeless, and alone. For some reason, said Purple Ink thought it was a good idea to bring her here. And although I am eternally happy that I was able to be called Isa’s mother, I wish she had never come here. Rather die in the cold than live here and become a monster like me._

_“Hi, mama.” Hearing her southern voice weak and cracking like that killed me. “I’m not feelin’ so good.” Her arms reached out to me, and I picked her up. For a 10 year old, she was too small and sickly. The small arms wrapped around my neck, which I gently leaned my head into. She felt cold to the touch._

_“I know baby,” Gently, my lips brushed against Isa’s forehead as I began to carry her out of the barracks. “You’re staying with me and dad tonight.”_

_“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” I didn’t answer her. I just kept my eyes forward and my face unreadable. Well, unreadable to anyone but her. “I’ll be okay, mamma. But will you and daddy?”_

~~

 

I woke up with a violent jolt. Little did I know that the one I called ‘Noob,’ would become one of my most trusted allies. And Isa did die that night. Thiago and I didn’t find out until she was cold in our arms the next morning, and we weren’t okay. Thiago died a year and a half later.

 

I tried to shake away the bad feeling in my chest and looked to my right. The clock on my nightstand read 6 o’clock, which meant we would be leaving in four hours. Time to get up. Slowly, I rose to my feet, ignoring the agony that wrung through my legs. Getting dressed was a challenge, and wrapping my knuckles and knees even more so. Off in the distance, I heard Wade answering his phone. I could smell Peter and Diablo in the kitchen making food. Hopefully something big, we would need the sustenance for the battle to come. Unfortunately, before I could find out my phone had begun to ring, which broke me out of my train of thought. “Hello?”

 

“Bruja. It’s Preston. Meet up at these coordinates in half an hour.” Just as she said that, my phone alerted me of a text. _44.5856° N, 75.6481° W_. Morristown? Why a small town on the 287? Also, nav says that’s an hour away! How was I supposed to get all four of us there in such a short amount of time?

 

_My turn, baby!_

 

I sighed with pure annoyance. “Alright, thank you Preston.” She hung up with no ‘You’re welcome.’ Must be a SHIELD thing. Despite that, I turned and quickly grabbed every weapon I owned and suited up. I had a total of 15 blades on my person along with 20 mags, four pistols, and one rifle.

 

With a deep and shaky breath, I walked outside. The boys had finished eating, and when they offered me food, I shook my head. “No time, we have to make an hour trip in less than thirty minutes.”

 

“How are we going to do that?” Wade still had a mouthful of food, so I barely understood him.

 

“We’re going to take Kegan.”

 

~~

 

Luckily, there was a park not five minutes from Wade’s house, so I could shift comfortably. “Alright, here’s the deal. Don’t piss Kegan off, don’t pull on her scales, and whatever you do, _do not_ say anything that might hurt her feelings. We don’t have time to wait for you to heal from being incinerated.” This was all directed at Wade. He wasn’t intentionally an asshole, he just had a habit of pissing people off. When he nodded at me, I turned to Diablo and shook my head and hands in preparation. He knew the deal. “Waiting is always the worst part. Just do it.” At my words, he took a deep breath, allowed his fist to catch fire, and punched me as hard as he could. This broke my cheekbone and knocked out a few teeth (which on any other occasion wouldn’t have been enough), but he also gave me a fourth degree burn. Half of my face screamed in pain as the skin pretty much melted away, then again it was soon gone as Kegan grew. Once we had switched places, and I was comfortably sitting in her head, I felt the scales on her body shake. Wade and Peter were figuring out where to sit, and Diablo sat comfortably in the crease between two of her horns. Camera shutters and flashes went off all around us angered her a little, but I told her to ignore it.

 

_Fly Northwest for 30 miles. I’m sure you’ll be able to see everyone after a few moments._

“Rodger that, Captain.” Hearing her deep gravelly voice actually being outside of my head (for once) was nice.

 

~~

 

We had reached the rendezvous in about 15 minutes, much to my surprise. I always forgot how fast she was (when she wanted to be). After a quick head count (70 had shown up. Extra students as well as agents had volunteered), and a fast recap of the plan, we were off. Half an hour and counting until we reached Camargo, Mexico. Nerves had made me puke again, and now I was sitting with Logan, both of us drinking whiskey to calm our nerves. “You okay?”

 

“I’m fine.” I could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn’t believe me. “I just… I have a bad feeling. How can we fight something like this?”

 

“Some things have to be taken on faith, kid.”

 

“And when that faith is lost?”

 

“Still workin’ on that one.” Logan looked down to his drink and swished it around before taking a large swig. I could tell he was bullshitting this entire conversation, in order to calm my nerves as well as his. Not that I had time to say anything about it because Diablo walked up to our spot with the look that meant we needed to talk. So with a nod, I smiled over to Wolverine and stood up. “No, sit down. It’s alright.” Diablo actually surprised me a little when he said this, but I trusted him. That is, until he pulled out the handcuffs from one of his pouches. I knew those all too well. They were mainly used to control Alphas and the shifters. Their main job was to neutralize your powers so you couldn’t change your shape and get away. With those on, you could hit me as many times as you want, as hard as you could, and Kegan couldn’t do a thing about it. “In order for them to believe that I’m bringing you back, you need to wear these.” With a sharp inhale of fear, I nodded.

 

“Alright folks, we’re landing now. Is everyone ready?”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I marked where the scene is, so if you need to, you can skip the last paragraph. It will make sense in the future, but you don't need to read it to understand. The last thing I want is for any of you to get triggered, so don't be afraid to tap out if it's too much!

When we landed, I gave Wade and Peter a quick hug, thanked Prof. X, and gave bruce a kiss on the cheek. He knew that it was my way of forgiving him, just in case anything happened today. However, when I turned to leave, he grabbed my hand. “Hey.”

 

“Mm?” My pouches made a small swishing sound when I turned, and you could hear my sickle clinking against the throwing knives.

 

“Promise me you’ll be okay.” Hearing the sincerity in his voice was weird, but oddly calming.

 

“Physically? I couldn’t die even if I wanted to.” No use in telling the truth. That would only worry him. “Mentally, however, I have no promises. And hey, big guy in there, watch it.” With a smile and wink, I turned towards Diablo. A shaky breath and handcuffs later, we were walking towards the facility.

 

Once we reached the door, Diablo had to let the computer scan his tattoo for recognition. It came back affirmative, but then the camera saw me. “Agent! Who do you have in custody? Turn them towards the camera at once!” Diablo scoffed at the order and shoved me towards the camera harshly. I knew it was for show, but _damn_. With a glare, I stepped forward and faced the security.

 

“Hello, boys.” A British accent dripped out of my sneering lips. I knew they recognized me because the door slid open immediately, and we were met with ten guards at least. To which, of course, Diablo pushed me towards and let them have me. This was all part of the plan and it was going smoothly so far. "How dare you backstab your alpha, you heartless coward!" The guard took me by the cuffs roughly, trying to hold me down. "I hate you, Dia! I trusted you!"

 

 

"Calm down, patient." A familiar voice grinned in my ear. I hated that voice with a fiery passion. Or maybe that was just Kegan. "Or I may have to sedate you."

 

 

"Taoski." I grinned as sarcastically as I could as he jerked my body towards to elevator. "Pleasure to see you still slithering around the place, like the snake you are." 

 

 

"I doubt that." 

 

 

Never let it be said that I don't know how to play a part. However, this was not a part anymore. I was actually scared shitless, and I was so screwed. _So, so, so screwed_. Taoski didn't press the button for the -2nd level (Red Ink Barracks), he pressed the one for the -6 th level.

 

 _The lab, oh god no. The bad lab. No, no, no_ , _no!_

 

"Where are you taking me, pig?" Despite the fact that my voice didn't shake, my hands certainly did, and both of us knew it. Kegan wasn’t helping either, my back was now on fire to make matters worse.

 

 

"Maddox is happy to have his favourite lab rat back. You're going to be the answer to his problem, and mine." Tom Taoski was a sadist, above all else. Out of all of the guards over the years, he's the only one that didn't faint during his internship. The only one who volunteered to deal with (meaning torture) traitorous White Inks (When the Red’s didn’t have to do it) or shoot the sick and useless. He saw us as nothing more than experiments. The funny part? He had a daughter my age who was the Black Ink Alpha.

 

 

"And what problem is that?" 

 

“He needs new Alphas, and considering you’re the only one left alive…”

 

“And with a healing factor. You know, I’m surprised you’re so nonchalant about this. Considering your daughter was one of us. The most fucked up of them all, right? Sombra of the Black Inks… I remember her. She could dissolve into a shadow whenever she wanted to. That is, until you and Hydra led her to her death.”

 

 

“You talk too much, you always have.” Something hard hit the back of my head, making me see nothing but white until I hit the ground. After I did, I found his boot repeatedly hitting my face. Blood splattered across the elevator floor and once again, I felt utterly helpless. I couldn’t shift to protect myself, and Kegan couldn’t get us out of there. I was stuck dealing with my now broken nose, lying in a puddle of my own blood.

­

~~

 

When I came to, my hands were bound above my head, my feet tied to a leg stand (like at the gynecologist), and I was sprawled out naked on a metal slab. The Power-Neutralizing handcuffs were still on me so I couldn't shift and get out of there. Panic began to set in when a nurse waltzed in, humming a melody to herself. She was new to this side of the fence, it was easy to tell by the spring in her step. This place had yet to rip that away from her. "Hey," sweat poured down my face (despite the goosebumps along my arms and thighs from the cold) as I wriggled myself around to see her and what she was doing. A needle was being pulled out of a plastic wrapper and placed on a tray, along with forceps, a scalpel, and various torture-chamber type tools. The nurse picked the needle up again and began to walk my way, which made my breathing speed up. A sharp pain filled my arm as she stabbed it into me roughly and taped it down. Lava poured into my veins, followed by ice, then lava again. They had used this on me before, it slows down your healing factor to 1/1,000 of its strength. So they could have me open on the operating table for hours if need be. "Where's that piece of shit Maddox?"

 

 

"The doctor will be in to see you shortly." That chirpy voice would soon fade. I wanted to rip it out of her throat myself, which showed when I growled at her as she walked by. This, of course, made her yelp and speed up her pace. My taunting laughs filled the sterile room around me, but were soon replaced with whimpers. I was terrified and no amount of taunting will hide that. 

 

“Good morning, Alexa.” A tall and frail man walked in, carrying a clipboard.

 

“I still don’t understand why you call me that, Maddox.” If I hadn’t known this asswipe for ten years, I would have tried to cover up. But it was nothing he hadn’t seen before. His face was skinny in the way that you could probably get cut if you touched his cheekbones. A narrow nose that had naturally flared nostrils, paired with the sunken in eyes and pointed ears made this ‘doctor’ Silent Hill worthy. “Yes, well, whose fault is that?” His gentle voice had a small lisp to it that made him even more horrific.

 

“Yours, idiot.”

 

The back of his hand hit the side of my face with enough force to split my lip. “Don’t you dare talk to me that way!” After my tongue licked away the blood from the now healed cut, I began laughing. Not because what happened was funny. I was terrified. But somehow, I couldn’t stop. Cackles filled the sterile room and I began shaking. “You don’t scare me, doc! Nothing you do will ever make me fear you again.” This earned me a punch to the rib cage. Though he was growing old (early 50’s) he could still pack a mean punch. Cracks radiated through my body and my lungs were rendered useless.

 

**_**This is it. TW Warning**_ **

 

“There,” Maddox sat down on his swivel chair and rolled to my feet. Naturally, I knees clasped together, but he soon shoved them apart again. “Now you’re controlled, let’s begin. Shall we?”

 

“What are yo— _NO!_ ” My voice went up four octaves as I felt something cold and made of metal slide into me. A stretching sensation pained my lower region and I began to feel needles and utensils being inserted. “Stop it, what are you doing?! Stop it!” Screams reverberated against the metal walls, but were met with chuckling. My body began to violently buck thrashing against the table, trying to get whatever was in me the fuck _out_. Immediately, Maddox stood and pressed his body against mine. “If you don’t calm down, I’ll feed you to the Black and White Inks. Do you understand, Alexa?” Tears formed in my eyes, but despite the disgusting feeling, I nodded. Having him so close to me made me want death more than ever. Sobs wrecked my healing ribs and all I could do was sit there and deal with this.


	12. Chapter 12

When I woke up, I was alone. As my eyes opened, I was blinded by red lights and blaring alarms rung in my ears. Fire alarms. Diablo must have started the plan without me, which is okay. That was the fallback plan… Still naked, tied up, weak, terribly sluggish, and hurting, I was slowly giving up. My thighs were sore, I could barely move my legs, and my wrists had deep gashes from the cuffs. My healing factor still hadn’t kicked back in, so I was still in significant amounts of pain. Gunshots could be heard from either the upper or lower levels. I couldn’t tell which. But there was something closer… I deep thumping somewhere near me. Using all of the strength I had, I picked my head up and looked over to my left. The Hulk was there, furiously banging on the window next to me. “Bruce…” Even if he was hugging me, he wouldn’t have heard that. My throat felt sore from screaming bloody murder a few hours ago, my mouth was dry, and I was too fragile to even try breathing. “Bruce, help me…” Tears fell down my cheeks as my mouth struggled to form the plea. When all of a sudden, the widow shattered and I lost consciousness again.

 

~~

 

Red lights, blood everywhere, gunshots all around us. This is what I was met with first when I managed to pull my eyes open. A large green arm was cradling me tightly and a cloth was gently draped over my body. There was something under me that was causing great discomfort (I later discovered it was my clothes) and my rifle was slung across the man’s back. “Bruce…”

 

“Not Bruce.” Hearing the Hulk’s gruff voice sent shivers down my spine. Shivers laced with relief and happiness. I was safe now.

 

“No…” A fragile smile supported my weak breaths. “But just as wonderful.” Somehow, my hand found the strength to reach up and cup his cheek, which obviously surprised the man (as well as me). When all went silent, we stopped in the middle of the hallway and he placed his hand on mine. His green eyes met my blue ones and I swear to god, I saw him smile. Not that acerbic smirk he got whenever Thor challenged him, but a sincere, heartfelt smile. That, depressingly, soon faded. Next thing I knew, we were running from bullets and bolting up a stairwell. “What floor are the Red Inks on?”

 

“Mmm… -2…” Slowly, I felt my healing factor kick back in, thank god. But something worried me. Kegan was cold and I hadn’t heard her in hours…

 

~~

 

The barracks of the Red Ink was just as nice as I remembered it. “Look away, please.” I turned and smiled to the one who saved me and he blushed a little. It only took a few seconds to slide on my shorts and sports bra that flattened my already small breasts (I was not dealing with a shirt today anyway). As I put on my belt, my eyes wandered around the hall. They had changed the setup, no doubt about it. To the left there used to a ‘Leader’s hall’ which was a room specifically for Thiago and I. Every level had them. But now it was some sort of training room. To the right was the sleeping and eating quarters. The outside was empty so I looked over to Hulk and nodded. “It’s okay, big guy. Go rest…Let me see Bruce please.” With a huff, the man shrank down into a human again.

 

When I walked over to Bruce to grab my rifle, he noticed my limp and the obvious discomfort in my stomach. “Bruja… Are you okay?”

 

“No time, we have to go talk to the Red Inks.”

 

“Bruja…” The look in his eyes made my heart flutter a bit, so I smiled and grabbed his hand to ease his worrying. He allowed it and laced his fingers with mine. As I turned to leave, he pulled me back. “Bruja….Where’s Kegan? Her mark is gone.” My hands immediately ripped out of his grip and touched the spot on my back. It was soft. There were no scales, no heat…

 

“ _No…_ ”

 

~~

 

When we walked in, every weapon was pointed at me for a few seconds, until Diablo and the rest of the ‘vets’ recognized me. I could see Maria and Noob, along with Alejo (who was dead, but apparently brought back), and probably 100 other people I knew. That meant only 150 were new recruits. With a smirk, I waved them all off and stood on a table. “Alright, listen up new ink! Many of you don’t _know_ me, but you know _of_ me.” I pointed to the painting of Kegan and Arno on the wall. It hurt to see her, but I bit my lip and shook the pain away. _A warrior does not mourn until the battle is won._ “I’m your Alpha.”

 

“The Alphas are all dead!” Some girl yelled from the back and the vets all laughed at her remark. I couldn’t blame them for not knowing one was still breathing. I figured that only the ones who had been there that day, or the ones who were sent to get me, knew that I still lived.

 

“Not this one. I was the only Alpha with a healing factor. I can’t be killed.” Slowly, my eyes scanned the crowd in front of me. When no one piped up, I put my hands on my hips. “Alright, now that’s been sorted... Raise your hand if you have a healing factor.” Every single hand went up. _Damn._ “Great! Good news is, none of you are dying today and you’re all getting out of here. Now, raise your hand if you have abilities.” Half of the hands raised. “Awesome. All pyro-class powers, stand by Diablo. Power Augmentation, Negation, Bestowal, Mimicry or Absorption, go to Maria. Shifters, with me. Everyone else with Noob—Sorry, Carmen.”

 

“What’s the plan?”

 

“All pyro-class powers go to the armory and get all of the explosives you can carry. Due to your powers and healing factors, you won’t get hurt if they explode. Shifters, I need you guys to turn into whatever it is you turn into and take down guards. Everyone else needs to lock up the untrusted –I need Maria’s group to neutralize any and all powers-, and get the Purple Inks out of here. Bruce, I’m taking you to the intensive care where you can start getting the sick out. Do we have any means of communication with SHIELD and the X-Men?”

 

“Yes,” he fished two radio earpieces out of his torn jeans and tossed one to me. “Here. It’s connected to every agent on the field.”

 

I quickly put it on and connected it to a radio on the back of my belt. “This is Bruja reporting in.” I felt like a sly FBI Agent with two of my fingers to my ear, which made my confidence skyrocket.

 

“Baby girl!” Wade answered immediately, and hearing his voice gave me a little piece of hope. This _would_ end today. “Where have you been? It’s been hours since we sent Bruce in!”

 

My heart stopped as I remembered the events that took place a few hours before. “I… T-There were complications. It doesn’t matter. I have the 250 Red Inks ready to go. I need SHIELD agents to draw the guards somewhere to distract them. Coulson, Preston, you there?”

 

“We’re here, Bruja.” Coulson answered. “Where do you need us?”

 

“South end of the building. Careful, though. There are five turrets on the roof.”

 

“Got it. _Move out_!” Preston responded this time. Good, this is going good.

 

“Alright, everyone check in every thirty minutes.” After I said this, I heard about 50 confirmations before Peter spoke up through the noise.

 

“Bruja, if anything happens to me, I need you to take care of Wade and Ben.” He sounded hesitant to ask, and I could practically hear Wade’s heart break.

 

“You’ll be fine, Peter. But… I promise.” I didn’t know who this _Ben_ was, but I would probably find out after all of this. “Oh, and… Technical Dad? Peter? I love you guys.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shitty chapter, I pretty much no idea how I'm going to write the battle. But I have everything after that figured out so... Yay?

With a heavy sigh, I turned to Diablo (who was with Maria) and nodded. Before any questions could be asked, a group of Red Inks ran past me, followed by my faithful friends. It was only Bruce and I left in the barracks. His eyes watched me closely as I walked around. In the very back to the left was Isa’s old bed. Someone else had occupied it while I was gone (which was to be expected, she had died over two years ago). The once white frame had become dirty with congealed blood and dirt over the years, and as my fingers traced the metal, dust fell to the floor in a pile. “This was hers, wasn’t it?” A large hand on my shoulder made me flinch. I sharply turned around, and my rifled hit the bed frame with a clang. It was only Bruce and I calmed down.

 

“I..” How he knew about Isa, I didn’t know. I didn’t want to know. “Yes. Come on, let’s go. There’s too many ghosts here.” My hand touched his and we hurriedly left the place I once called home.

 

~~

 

We didn’t run down the halls for very long before a person (if he could even be called that) in the shadows stopped me. Almost immediately, I shoved Bruce behind me. He took the hint and kept walking backwards as I faced the figure. “Arson…” I don’t know why, but my feet took me towards him (and his did the same), until there was only a few feet between us.

 

“Bruja! What a pleasure to see you…” His mouth parted slightly, showing long sharp teeth and blood stains. A pointed tongue slid out and licked some blood away from his lips, before running against my tattoo. “Looking superb as ever.”

 

“I wish I could say the same.” I grimaced against the wet touch to my cheek and shoved the inhumanly long tongue away from me. His once handsome face had been mutilated and changed. The strong jaw I used to punch during training was now narrow and his chin was equal to that of a dagger. His dark skin reformed to a green-ish tint and for some reason, he had scales.

 

“They altered me, I know. But you, you look exactly the same. Perks of being a shifter, I suppose.” He walked around me in a circle, and hit me hard in the ribs. It took a lot of strength not to fall over. I needed to stay calm for Bruce. Even with Arson hissing, I could hear Bruce struggling to keep Hulk back. And I made the foolish mistake of taking my eyes off of my old ‘friend’ to check on him. Once I did, Arson swept my feet from under me and his long fangs ripped into my throat. Blood sprayed everywhere and I could feel Bruce’s enraged eyes watching it happen. “Bruce! Look _away_! Don’t… watch...” Blood stained my entire torso as I coughed up an alarming amount of blood. Well, alarming for a mortal.

 

“You know they made me a guard after the Hydra Massacre…? They made me thissss. You know Reaper from Weapon X? They gave me his genes. Thanks to my new saliva, you can’t move.” Arson’s tongue clicked behind his teeth. “You’ve let your guard down, my sweet, sweet Witch.” His words made me queasy and I coughed up another surprising amount of blood.

 

“Arson, please, we’re not here to kill _you._ We’re here to kill them!”

 

“ _I am them_.” The black ink was almost invisible against the dark green complexion, but it was burned into my memory.

 

“I can’t believe you.” Burning spread through my neck like wildfire as the wound began to close and my nervous systems began to reactivate. “After what they did to you. _To your sister_. But you know what? I’m not in the mood to deal with you. Get out of my way, or I _will_ kill you. I don’t care about our past together anymo—Agh!” I groaned again as fire filled my belly. There was a weird orange glow coming from my bare stomach and Arson hissed against the heat. “You fucked with the wrong witch, _asshole_.” I don’t know how, but everything turned orange for a split second. And when it did, the man on top of me was sent flying against the wall in a blaze of fire. Without hesitation, I scrambled to my feet and crawled over to Bruce. During the orange light thing, he had been thrown against a door and turned into an unconscious Hulk.

“Bruce, come on, get up. Arson won’t be down long.” I tugged at Bruce’s large green arm, too tired from healing to carry him. “Hulk, please. I can’t take Arson, he’s Black Ink, _please_.” Groans arose as I kicked The Hulk’s giant rib cage. But before he could get up, violent explosions shook the entire building. Dust fell from the cracks in the roof and I barely had time to mutter “ _Oh, fuck._ ” The wall next to Arson shattered and sent large stone debris against everything, including my head.

 

~~

 

When I woke up (or thought I did, rather) there was something black and rough wrapped around me. A white light pained my eyes, and there was a silence hanging over the atmosphere (Or lack of one). One so impressive, I could hear the blood rushing through my veins. There was nothing around us, only white. White walls, white floors, white ceilings. A familiar feeling scratched against my back. _Scales_. “Kegan?”

 

“Hey, Bruja.” When I turned, I saw the six horns wrapped around her face (three on each side), the beak-like snout, and her bright red eyes. I had never noticed the red swirls and designs that spun themselves around her black snout, legs, and wings.

 

“God, you’re beautiful…” Never had I ever seen this version of her. All I’d ever seen was from her eyes, or paintings of her. “Where… Where are you? Your mark I mean. And- Where are we?”

 

“We’re in your head.” She snuffled and wrapped her wing around me. “I’m gone, Bruja. You know why.”

 

“No…” Tears filled my eyes. This couldn’t be true, not now, it wasn’t possible! “You can’t leave me. I need you, you’re my only family.” My hands placed themselves against her temple as I rested my forehead against the middle horn and cried.

 

“Not anymore.” The white area around us soon filled with images, memories. Wade and I at the diner, Diablo carrying me on his shoulder, xbox with Wade, partying with the Avengers… And I was laughing _in all of them_. Bruce was there too. In most of them, I noticed he would stare at me with a small grin. “You have them now, Bruja. Let them in.” Before I could say anything, she was gone. The memories were gone. I was alone, cold, and sobbing uncontrollably. This wasn’t a dream, no matter how much I wished it was. It was real.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I just drove for five days straight, moved twice, and now I'm sick! I hope to get everything up and running again soon! Also, RHF is Regenerative Healing Factor~

There was a sharp ringing in my ears when I woke up. Not only was it hard to breathe, but my head hurt with a sort of thudding pressure and I couldn’t see anything but black. My hands were groping what felt like shoulders, my head resting on what must have been a chest, and a boulder was trapping my legs. Though, if I shifted small enough, I could definitely get out from under it. And if I tried hard enough (with an immense amount of pain) I could see green skin. Bruce, certainly Bruce. But there was a voice above me. One that I knew, but couldn’t quite place. It was ever so slightly deeper than it used to be. After all, I hadn’t heard it in three years. “Dr. Maddox, this way.” It hit me like a ton of bricks. They brought her back, they brainwashed her. Oh god, oh no.

“Isa?” my tired voice called out through the rubble, hoping that I could get her in a moment of clarity. I knew she would have green eyes instead of blue when I saw her, but there was no wrong in hoping for the former and not the ladder. It took all of the strength I had, but my bones began to tingle and I shifted into a rat. The boulder was a bit of an issue, until I became small enough to wriggle out of it. As I scaled the huge rubble, I listened closely to the voices around me.

“Did you hear that, Isa?” One I had never heard before. A young one. Nervous and inexperienced.

“It was nothing, Skel. Come on sir, let’s get you to safety.” There she was again.

“Isa, seriously. I think there might be someone else in here.” I quickly scurried to the shadows and watched as my daughter helped Maddox walk through the room carefully, and as someone I didn’t know went through the rubble around me, looking for a body. “Isa! It’s Arson! Ugh, he’s dead. Come look.”

“He won’t be down long.” Isa let go of Maddox and walked over the mess to the other person. She would know it was me. He burned to death but there was no sulphur in the air, which meant it wasn’t a pyro-class, it was a dragon. “Search everywhere in this room. It is of the upmost importance we find the other person in this room before they come back.”

“Uh, this may be a bad time, but knock knock!” Every pair of open eyes flicked over to a red and black clad man who stood awkwardly in the blown up door way. Without hesitation, I shifted back into a human and stepped out of the shadows.

“Who’s there?” Everyone turned at looked at me. Then back to Wade.

“Boo.”

“Oh god. Boo who?”

“Don’t cry, it’s time to die!” At this, I threw my blades towards Maddox, trapping him against the wall. Wade however, shot the unnamed asshole in the head (it was actually a really good shot). When everyone else was taken care of, I motioned for Wade to grab Isa and hold her still.

“Isa, it’s mama, I know you’re in there.” Her green eyes watched me as I slowly treaded over to her.

“I know exactly who you are, _bitch_.” The tone in her voice stung me greatly. But as soon as it was there, it was gone. Her blue eyes shone against her dark skin and they filled with fear. “Mama…? Mama! Kill me, _please._ Please mama, help.”

“No… No, baby, I won’t.” My feet took me closer and closer until my hand gently brushed her cheek. “No, I’m going to get you out of here and SHIELD is going to help you, baby.”

“Mama, listen to me, if you don’t I will kill you and whoever this is… Who..?” She tried her best to look around, but couldn’t under Wade’s tight grip.

“Deadpool. Pleasure to meet ya.”

“Wade, let her go.” At this, he dropped her and I immediately took her into my arms. “Oh, Isa, I’ve missed you so much.”

“Where is daddy?” I tensed at the question, my entire body going rigid. “Oh…” Isa’s voice cracked and she pulled me closer. “Do it mommy, please, do it.” I didn’t even feel her grabbing for my gun until she placed it in my hands and pulled it under her jaw. “It’s okay...”

“Bruja, I can do it, if you’d prefer…” Wade’s voice turned soft as I watched him walk closer. He stopped when I shook my head. “Alright.”

“I love you, Isa.”

“I love you too, mama.” I thought I would never hear her voice again, but now, when I was absolutely sure that this would be the last time… I was scared. The gun clattered in my hands when she looked up into my eyes. She was already losing lucidity, I could tell. Green was slowly taking over those beautiful teal eyes. I closed my eyes, held my breath, bit my tongue and... Her body went limp against mine as blood splattered all over the room. My knees gave up and I collapsed. “No… No, no, no…” A storm of tears began to fall and for the first time in a while, I heard the SHIELD radio in my ear.

 _I’m pinned down, there’s too many of them!_  
Preston, request to pull back!  
Bruja, the charges are set to blow!  
Anyone have eyes on Hulk? We kind of need him to do the whole 'I SMASH' _thing!_  
Peter, be careful!  
Where the hell are the X-Men?!

It was too much so I did the only thing I could think of. I pulled Isa close to my chest and sobbed. My lungs heaved against her body and eyes burned as tears fell onto her cheeks. My nose rested on her forehead as I cried ‘No,’ over and over again. Everything melted away and I sobbed as loud and as hard as my body would allow. Without thinking, I raised my gun and aimed it at the wall where Maddox was supposed to be. But Maddox wasn’t there… He was behind Wade’s now dead body, holding a katana. “You… You did this.” The gun clattered as my arm went limp and hit the ground next to me.

“Now, now, Alexa. You cannot honestly blame me when you are the one who pulled the trigger, can you?” That disgusting lisp filled my ears and pissed me right off. I hated him, I hated him so much.

“Yes! Yes I can blame you! What you did to her… What you did to _me_!”

“You don’t even know _what_ I did to you, Alexa.” Maddox tilted his head and smiled at me. “Do you?”

“Whatever it was, it’s gone now. I healed.”

“Oh precious, this is not something that can be simply healed by your RHF.”

“What…?”

“My dear, you are the new generation.” His narrow face smirked down at me and the dead bodies around us. Behind me, I could hear Bruce stirring, Arson and Wade were both groaning through the pain of coming back. A hard scowl set on my face as I set my child down and kissed her forehead. “Oh, are you going to shoot me?”

“No,” The gun at my feet was kicked away by bare feet. “Guns are too good for you.” Slowly, I sauntered over to Wade’s now fully awake head and picked up his Katana.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bruja: I hate you, Hal. I hate you so fucking much.  
> Me: Bru... I'm so sorry, I love you. I promise I do...  
> Bruja: Fuck you.  
> Me: I'll let you kill someone the next chapter, okay?  
> Bruja: At least three people. And it better be gory! *points finger at Hal*  
> Me: *Raises hands* Alright, alright. Ask and ye shall receive.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that the story has turned really shitty.. I'm trying my best to get over this writer's block, but so far I haven't made much progress. Also, this isn't the end, don't worry.

Wade’s blade felt nice and heavy in my hand, though it left said hand too soon. As I passed by Arson –who had regained consciousness-, I firmly pushed the blade all the way through his skull and into the concrete below him, without taking my eyes off of Maddox. Behind me, the Hulk was pushing boulders away from his immediate area, and Wade had placed his head back on –albeit backwards- and was trying to grasp the situation. As my feet took my closer to Maddox, my fingers traced the canvas of my utility belt and counted the blades I would need. “Are you going to run, Maddox?” I cocked my head to the left and gripped a throwing blade, but hadn’t pulled it out yet.

“Considering it, dear.”

“Well,” I pulled out a blade and flung it into his knee with practiced ease. The sweet mixture of his yelp and the sound of metal meeting bone gave me chills. The tall and now frail man slid to the ground and clutched his knee. “Now you can’t.” My entire body was shaking and anticipating this. I hadn’t tortured anyone in nearly two years, and my last Recon mission was terribly dull… I hadn’t seen one drop of blood (the guy squealed like a pig the second he saw us, and the surrounding area gave us everything we needed anyway)! “You know, teaching someone how to get information out of, well… anyone, can really come back to bite you in the ass.”

“If you want to know something, ask, Alexa. That’s always been the deal between you and me.”

“Don’t act like we’ve been friends this past decade. Besides, I don’t want to know anything, it was a metaphor, asshole. Except maybe…” I pulled my Sickle out and examined it. It was based off of Cronus’, save for one detail. On the outside of the teal handle, there was a Brass Knuckle type situation. However, instead of the regular round shape, it was a smooth line on the top. “You’ve never seen me in the field. So do you know why I have these on the handle?”

“I would imagine it is for hitting someone?” He looked at me but I shook my head with a dark grin. “Oh, please do tell. I’m absolutely _bursting_ with curiosity.”

“Even better… I’ll show you.” My empty hand grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulled him back up, and slammed his back against the wall. As my left hand held Maddox steady, the right flipped the Sickle so I was holding it upside down and slid my slender fingers through the slots. Slowly, the tip of the blade pierced the skin below his bottom rib and slid out on top of said rib. I was careful –not to mention practiced- and so I managed to not hit any veins or his lungs. Blood poured out of his wounds and splattered on the ground I gave him a few seconds to breathe through the agony before I kneeled down with one hand on his chest and the other still on the blade. “Ready? This is my favourite part…” With all of the strength I had, I pulled the blade forward, causing the rib to not only break, but rip out. Cracks reverberated through his body and my blade as he screeched in agony, and blood sprayed me in the face. I couldn’t stop my tongue from poking out and licking a bit away from my top lip. Iron mixed with a hint of steel (from the blade)… A morbid smirk set upon my face as I began to wreak havoc on his body.

By the time I was done, two more ribs were gone with surgical perfection. On his chest were the initials of every friend I had ever lost. On his arms, Arno, Thiago, Kegan, and Isa were carved as well. I had also taken the liberty of taking Wade’s other Katana and shoving it through Maddox’s shoulder, pinning him to the wall, making my work significantly easier.

“One last thing.” My sore and bloody fingers harshly grabbed his jaw. “Don’t go dying yet, sweetie. There’s one more thing.” He spluttered up blood and spat in my face by accident. On the way down from the -2nd level, I made Hulk stop at Maddox’s office so I could steal my file. And right then, with Maddox’s blood in my hands and on my face, I couldn’t think of anything except the letter he wrote and left in my file five years ago.

_October 27, 2010_

_Alexa,_

_I doubt you will ever read anything in this. But I case you do, I am sorry for everything I have done -and everything I will do- to you. I have to treat you the way I do. Everyone has to, it’s policy. And I am not proud of any of it, save one thing:_

_You and your brother (You know him as Diablo) were born here and you two were the first of many experiments. Dia, as you call him, wasn’t actually related to his ‘sisters’. We merely put him in the same orphanage as them and asked that they be raised together._ You _are his real sibling… Twin, in fact._

_Anyways, we wondered what would happen if you decided to sign up, instead of being born into this. Do you want to know the results?_

_You blamed yourself and became the best and most trusted soldier we ever had, in order to make it up to yourself. Compared to the ones who were born here in the beginning, Angel for example, had became White Inks. They hated us three times more than you did and rebelled._

_The reason I’m proud of this, of you and everything you are, is because you are my daughter._

_I love you, my dear. Never forget that._

_Dr. D.M._

 

“I know why you call me Alexa. It was my name, when I was born here. And Diablo’s is really Alexander. You’re our biological father, aren’t you?”

“Y… _yes._ ” His eyes met mine for a few seconds, then fell to the floor in shame. “Y…your brother takes after you-your mother… And you loo…look like me.”

“Well then. This gives me great pleasure.” His eyes met mine again, but this time, they were filled with fear. “I’m leaving you here to either burn or to bleed out. Oh, I’m sorry, did you think that would save you? Did you think that would fix everything you’ve done to me? What you _just_ did to me, not three hours ago?” I laughed at him. Him, my bleeding and dying father… _No._ More like sperm-donator. “You know what? _You aren’t my dad_. But do you know who is?” I looked behind me for the first time in nearly an hour, and saw Wade supporting Bruce. I smiled at them and a tear fell down my cheek. I let go of Maddox, letting him collapse to the floor, and walked over to two members of my new family. My sports bra was soaked in blood, and I was practically slathered with it all over my body, but neither of them seemed to mind. 

“Let’s get out of this god forsaken shit hole.” Wade wrapped his hand around Bruce’s waist, after motioning for me to help carry him. I nodded and let the exhausted (and hurt) man put his arm over my shoulders. And with a kiss to Bruce’s cheek and a smile, we walked through the ruined halls, leaving my past behind.


	16. FOUR MONTHS AGO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little flashback to when the bbys first met~

_The first time I met Robert Bruce Banner._

 

I sat in the SHIELD infirmary, on the floor next to the window. I’d been here two hellish days and I was already beginning to hate it. So far, I’d met Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye (did you know he’s deaf? Because I didn’t) and four SHIELD nurses. I still had to meet The Hulk, Thor, and Spiderman. But even having met half of the Avengers, I didn’t like them. They were cocky, self-righteous, and _rude_. For some fucking reason, they thought they were better than me. But you know what? I didn’t want to be a monster. I didn’t want to enjoy killing. But I did and there was no changing that.

_Bruja, someone’s here._

“I know.” I whispered to the voice in my head. I could smell whoever it was, perks of being Wolverine’s DNA Guinea Pig I guess. They smelled like a cross between Gamma Radiation and something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “I wonder who it is.”

As if they had heard me, there was a soft knocking at the door. My head snapped to the right and I glared at the door as a man came in. He was short, about 5’10”, but still towered over me by a good 5”. He also had shaggy brown hair and Harry Potter spectacles. In his hands was a black folder with the SHIELD symbol on it. There was an awkward air around him and you could tell that he didn’t particularly like being around people.

_This is going to be fun._

“Good morning, Bruja. My name is Dr. Bruce Banner. Fury sent me down after receiving a few complaints from the nurses. I believe one of them said you…” He opened the folder and flipped through the pages. “Growled and burned her when she tried to take blood samples?” I smiled at him and laughed a little bit. “I’m here to help you finish filling out your file and do a routine checkup, is that alright?”

The smile on my face faded and I turned away from him with a grunt of disapproval. The skyline of the city was wonderful. With the sun setting over the bright buildings, I was amazed. To the west, the sun cast an orange/yellow blend across the river. However, to the south was a mixture of amethyst purple and carnation pink, with wisps of clouds slithering across the horizon. I’d never been to East Coast, for most of my missions were either overseas or on the west coast/central regions of the US/Canada/South America.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Bruce’s footsteps came closer to me and stopped a few feet away. He leaned against the wall with one hand is his pocket and the other still holding that cursed file. “Shall we get started?” I pulled my knees to my chest and didn’t answer. Though he must have taken that as a ‘yes,’ because he sat down across from me and opened it. A pen was quickly taken from his ear and it began. “SHIELD Agent Lieu found you in an abandoned warehouse off of the I80 in Nevada after reports of strange activity. In said warehouse there was approximately $50,000, along with 50 different types of blades, 4 rifles –all long distance-, various explosive devices, and 15 pistols. All had the serial numbers scratched off, and most were illegally imported. Is this correct?”

“Mm.”

“Alright.” He checked something off and twirled the pen in-between his fingers. “Is Bruja your real name, or Code name? If Code Name, what _is_ your real name? And what is your date of birth?” I merely pursed my lips and looked out the window again. To which, he sighed and frowned at me. “Look, the sooner you cooperate, the sooner you can get out of this room.”

_Just do it. But_ do not _break your training._

“Code Name. I don’t know what my legal name is. I believe my birthday is…” I bit my lip and thought for a moment. “If I’m nineteen then my birth-year is 1996. The month might be somewhere around October?”

“You don’t know your birthday?”

“I also don’t know my parents, possible siblings, or hometown.” A hard grimace set upon my face and I looked towards the sunset again. “But thank you for the reminder.”

“Alright, alright. I’m sorry.” Bruce continued to write. “Any illnesses?”

“Stage III Osteosarcoma in my left and right Patella’s, left Femur, and Right Tibia. I also have Chondrosarcoma in my T1-T12 Vertebrae.” As I said this, Bruce’s jaw went slack and his pen fell to the floor. “But I also have an RHF –Regenerative Healing Factor, that is.” After a few moments of silence, Bruce coughed and picked his pen back up. With a readjusting of his glasses, he went back to asking questions. Things like, ‘Do you have any mutations?’, ‘Do you have any abilities? If so, can you demonstrate them?’, and my _favourite_ : ‘Do you have any past or current affiliations with any of the following; Hydra, Weapon X, Dr. Doom, M.O.D.O.K., other villains on SHIELD’s top wanted list, or any Kill-For-Hire programs?”

The technical answer is _yes_. I have met /worked for both Doom and M.O.D.O.K. (they’re both dicks), and I have been in more than one Kill-For-Hire program. But the real answer is _no_. No matter the situation, no matter the person, you _never_ give out your client’s information or the details of their requests. You could torture me for years, and I would never tell you about my missions.

“No.”

“But you are a mercenary, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Who gave you your assignments?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who paid you the $50,000?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where did you get the weapons?”

“I don’t know.”

Bruce sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. I could tell he was getting frustrated by the green hints in his brown eyes, but he understood. If any of the heroes would understand the ‘unwritten mercenary code,’ it would be the ones SHIELD hired. “Okay. That’s all I need for now.” When he got up to leave, he smiled and turned towards the door.

“I thought there was a checkup?”

“If you have a healing factor, it’s not needed.” My blue eyes watched as he walked away from me and through the door. Once the door was firmly shut, I sighed and leaned my head against the wall. All in all, Bruce was kind, adorable, and obviously smart –though he wasn’t rude about it-.

_We’re fucked._

“Yeah. Yeah we are Kegan.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The move Bruja did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmm32ry4sNU

“This is Bruja, checking in. Status update, please.” I didn’t know who would answer, but I didn’t care. Bruce had gained enough strength to walk on his own again, Wade was trying to navigate through the maze of metal halls, and I had a pistol in each hand, shooting any and all personnel I saw (which was a lot. I’d already used 14 ½ of my 15 pistol mags. –The other five were for my rifle-).

“Bruja, it’s Rogers.” Steve’s –obviously worried- voice came through my earpiece. “The turrets are down, explosives are set, the sick are in the Aven-jet –which is about to take off-, and as far as we can tell, most of the guards are dead.” (Bullshit) “But…”

“Cap…What’s wrong?” I stopped dead in my tracks and listened to him try to get the sentence out. _Oh, god._ “Wait, Peter _what_?” I tried to listen, I swear I did, but there were too many people, too many gunshots, too much death. This was all too much. Somewhere around me, I could tell Wade was listening in.

“We haven’t heard from Peter in nearly an hour, and Preston can’t get an estimate on his location. We’re too busy with the sick here, I need you to find him.”

“We can handle it, Steve.” Wade sounded surprisingly calm, considering the situation. That is, until one of my worst enemies decided to speak up.

“Bruja, it’s your old friend Taoski. I felt I should thank you for the goodbye present. You didn’t have to send me Spider-Man! You’re so kind.”

“You snake! How did you get access to this channel?” For some reason, I spun around and looked Wade in the eyes. Anger was showing in both mine and his, and he didn’t have to remove the mask to show it. Both of us stared at one another as he gripped his katana so tight, the cloth on his knuckles ripped.

“I stole it from a mostly dead mutant.” A pleased sigh came through the CB. “Young too, not any older than you.”

“Where. Are. You.” The man across from me was now Hulk-worthy angry as he hissed into his microphone.

“Come to the sanctum in half an hour or Peter Parker bites the dust.”

“Fine.” My eyes lit up as I smirked. “But a warning to you. You better be armed to the fucking teeth, because when I get up there, I am going to beat the living shit out of you, then I’m going to use your technique on you. How’s that saying go? ‘Taste of your own medicine?’”

“Roger that, mother.” His disgusting voice came through my ear, and I couldn’t stop myself from throwing my radio against the wall. Plastic shards flew everywhere, much like the glass bottle in my room not too long ago. Wade grunted a frustrated yell and I immediately grabbed my rifle.

_Bolt up and pulled back. Magazine in. Bolt forward and down. Right hand around the grip. Finger straight and off of the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. Buttstock into the shoulder. Left hand on the front of the guard. Cheek on the top of the buttstock._

“Why did he call you ‘mother’?” Bruce stood next to me and placed his hand on my shoulder, not only snapping me out of my training, but startling me. If my finger had been on the trigger, I would have shot the wall –which would have ricocheted and hit one of us.

“I don’t know.” I tried to pull away from his touch, but my body didn’t want to. So instead I leaned into him and sighed.

“It’ll be okay. Go get Peter, I’m going to reassure….” Bruce trailed off and pulled me closer.

“What..?” I turned around in his arms and pulled my rifle closer. Bucky Barnes was walking towards us. Instinctively, my arms brought the rifle up and set his repulsive (actually would-be handsome if he hadn’t slaughtered my husband and bother’s adopted sister) face in my sights. “What the hell are youdoing here, scum?”

He raised his hands in defeat. “I’m here to help.”

“ _Fuck you_.” Bruce’s arms pulled my closer as my body tensed. “No, really, _fuck you_. Fuck you and any help you can or can’t offer. Take it and shove it up your Hydra ass.”

The Winter Soldier winced at my harsh words. “Alexa, please, let me help you. I remember what Hydra…What _I_ did to you.” Bucky’s voice was surprisingly calm and so deep it nearly gave me shivers ( _not the good kind_ ).His eyes hit the floor in shame, but his hands remained up. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t call me Alexa.” The gun clicked in my hands as I lowered it and let the barrel aim at the floor. With a breath so deep that my lungs shook, I nodded and pointed a finger at him. “Make one, _one_ , move that could be considered be putting Peter, Wade, or I in danger, and I will kill you.”

“Understood.”

~~

I led Wade and Bucky through the metal halls with an absolutely terrifying scowl on my face. If I walked into the barracks last year with this look, every Ink would stand and salute me, hoping to god that I didn’t start a fight or turn into Kegan. In one hand was a pistol holding my last remaining 9mm bullets, and my sickle was in the other. I had killed 6 black Inks, 10 White Inks, and 15 guards in the past twenty-five minutes.

Another White Ink turned the corner, holding a Needle Point blade (which I wanted). I knew her… This was Angel! The White Ink Alpha. But… She _died_.

“Bruja! Holy shit, you’re alive!” She pulled me into a one sided hug. I wasn’t happy to see her. “Wait… What is he doing here?” Angel immediately backed away from me, Bucky, and Wade. “He killed me. He killed my wife!”

“Angel.” I hadn’t said her name in a very long time, and the Spanish pronunciation practically rolled off of my tongue. “I need to get past you. Move.”

“Where are you going?” I answered her with a scowl. “Ah, right. Ask but don’t tell. Well, I’m not moving until I kill that piece of shit.”

“Angel, _move._ ” My sickle shined in the bunker light as a warning. She knew I would gladly kill her. But she was like me (except she _could_ die), she didn’t fear death. She only feared one thing. And that’s pain.

“No.” I watched as Angel raised her blade and flipped it round, so that the blade was pointed towards the floor.

“Fine.” I raised an eyebrow and slid my SIG into its holster. And leg my sickle fall to the floor. Angel easily towered over me by three or four inches, so she launched towards me and tried to stab my collar bone. But as her arm came down, I stopped it with my left forearm. Without hesitation, I reached up and around, placing my right hand on the other, and snapped her arm back. Cracks reverberated around the metal hall as her feet went out from under her, which also cracked her hip. I tossed her to the side after picking up her blade. She screamed and cried, not only because I broke her arm, but because this was her hell. Most White Inks feared the surgeries or the torture, but Angel feared fights. She was terrified of losing (which she always did) and the pain that came with it. “Thank you for the knife, sweetheart.” I smiled over to Bucky. “Now, I’m going to leave him here with you, Lernaean Hydra.” (That’s her form. It’s sort of like a sea serpent, but with multiple heads. There can be three to seven. She has five.) “Do try to get along. After all, you're both Hydra scum!"

After a wink to Bucky, I motioned for Wade to follow and smiled to myself as I heard Angel screaming for me.

 _“I’ll kill you, Bruja! You… You… No! Get away from me!_ NO! _”_

~~

“What is the Sanctum?” Wade walked behind me, playing with one of his guns. “Sounds… Spooky. No, Holy…. Spooky _and_ Holy.”

“It was where I hid whenever I lost someone.” The two of us walked into an elevator and I pressed the button for the -1st level. “It’s a greenhouse with a really tall ceiling. I always used to shift into a bird or monkey or something and hide away in the rafters.”

The elevator dinged as we reached our destination. Outside of the doors was a pile of dead bodies about four feet high. A pathetic attempt to slow us down. With a grimace, I lifted my foot and kicked the center of the wall with as much strength as I could muster. I was tired, I was sore, and I was nauseous. There was a weird churning in my stomach and the room was swaying. _Oh, god, are we on a ship? No wait, we’re in Mexico. Right_. Nausea boiled up my stomach and into my throat. Before I could hold it back, I leaned against the wall and puked a mixture of green and yellow bile. Wade rubbed my back and asked me something that I didn’t cath. Somethin’ about cancer and dead bodies. I don’t know. My hands found my stomach and rubbed it gently. The cold wall felt good on my feverous forehead.

~~

As we approached the beautiful greenhouse that was my sanctuary a long time before, both my pace and heartbeat sped up. I flung open the doors and stumbled inside. I wasn’t feeling well at all, but Peter was more important. “There!” Wade pointed over towards the fountain, where Spider-Man lay unmasked and unconscious.

“Peter, no. Oh, god, Petey.” I fell to my knees and pulled him close. There was blood everywhere, cuts all over his body, and a knife a few feet away. His heartbeat was slowing. I had seconds to save him, if that. Shudders shook my body as my DNA strand began to change, and more of my brain was available for usage. With a deep breath, I pulled Peter closer and began to say ‘Sana,” over and over again. Each time I said it, it became more and more desperate. “Please, Peter, come on. Come on, Peter. Sana, sana, sana. Oh god, fuck, please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasp!* Does Peter die? Does he live? Stay tuned to find out!


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone pls tell me I'm not completely fucking up this story

“Parker, don’t you dare. Don’t you do it.” My breath hitched as I put my head on his chest, waiting to hear a beat, or a breath, or a groan… Or anything! God, just this one thing. Everyone else who _can_ die has been taken away from me, just give me Peter back! Wade paced behind me, holding his hands to his ears and trying his best not to scream over the ‘boxes’, as he calls them. After minutes of hoping and trying, I gently set Peter down and looked at Wade with tears streaming down my face. As I shook my head, Wade dropped to his knees and screamed. I’ve heard hundreds of people scream, in many different ways, but I have _never_ heard a sound like that. It was helpless, broken, a sob mixed with a whimper. Even now, I’m struggling to describe the sound that I will never forget. I held the back of my to my mouth and bit the soft flesh, in an attempt to literally bite back tears. Well, whimpers. Sobs. Seeing _the_ Deadpool, the Merc with the Mouth, like this? The badass that was slowly becoming the father I never had, on his knees, whimpering and begging to die? _God damn_ , it hurt.

“Well, well, I see you found my present.” Taoski’s voice echoed throughout the green glass walls, and Wade immediately stood up. I could see him shaking from anger even from a few feet away.

“Hey Wade, want me to teach you a few tricks?” A devilish (and sad) grin crossed my face as we turned away from him.

“Yeah. Sounds good.” The twisted expression on Wade’s face as we walked away from Peter scared the shit out of me. But soon, it faded. And the light in his eyes quickly returned.

“W…Wade?” A tired voice coughed up from behind us.

“Baby boy!” The red and black clad man whipped around and (literally) stumbled towards his lover. Once he reached him, Wade tackled the poor spider and cried into his chest. Incoherent mixes of “I love you,” “I was so scared,” and “Baby boy, baby boy.”

Not forgetting that my target was still somewhere in the room, I walked over to Peter, crouched down next to him (across from Wade, so that most of Peter was hidden by our bodies), and ruffled the hair under his mask. “Glad to see you breathing, web-head.” Peter tried to slide off his mask, but I stopped him halfway. A slender finger raised to my pursed lips, then made a circular motion. For a second, Peter groggily looked between the two blue eyes above him then shook his head while mouthing ‘I don’t want to know.’

I looked at him and asked if he could walk. When he said yes, we quickly decided on a plan. “Okay, Wade, take him to the elevator. Pete, go to the first floor, take a right, then a left and go straight through the doors. The Super-Fam is super worried.” As my hands fumbled around by belt –I was nervous, shut up-, I remembered something. “Here, I know you hate guns, so this is what you’re getting.” I handed him the Needle-Point Blade and nodded towards the door.

~~

“What now?” Wade snapped a branch off of a tree and shoved it in the handles of the door.

“Now, we look. I’ll take the sky.” It took me a moment to shift into a Smooth-Billed Ani. Whenever I visited Belize, this bird was my favourite to see. During my off-hours or when I finished a mission, I would go to the outskirts of the city and lay on the beach. Just listening to the waves and the birds. Anyways, this bird was slender with a long black tail. The beak was short and rounded, with a high ridge.

17 inches in wingspan took me far over the trees and the small pond, into the rafters. Silently, I shifted into a Serval (Felis [Leptailurus]) and crawled along the beams. Small paws padded against steel, while large ears flicked left and right, searching for the smallest cue. Wade crept along the walls, hidden by trees, most likely relying on his ears more than eyes.

There. In the North-West corner, on the left side of the pond. Taoski was sitting on the edge of the wall, sharpening a blade. An M-16 sat next to him, and it wasn’t a normal one. It held vials of something. Of what, I could only guess. But I didn’t know that if given the chance, he would kill us both and run. And I could not let that happen. So I walked to the edge of the beams, where it met the wall in a triangular shape. Luckily, when I shifted back, my rifle was already loaded. With a deep breath, I raised my gun and looked through the sight. But before I could shoot, there was someone banging on the doors, yelling for me. I could smell the cigar from here, it was Logan.

And then, I fucked up. I swore too loudly, drawing Taoski’s attention to me. And before I knew it, his gun was aimed at me. The next scene happened in slow motion.

A vial –much like a tranq- shot into my calf  
The doors being sliced open  
Logan and Wade yelling/running for me  
Sudden hot flashes, then freezing cold shivers taking hold of my entire body  
I started to shake and slipped  
My rifle fell and clattered to the ground below me  
My fingers clasping desperately to the steel bars  
The roof growing farther and farther away  
My foot connecting with the ground  
And just like that, my knee shatters.

I groaned against the pain in my leg and tried my best to understand my surroundings again. When I fell, my head hit the cement and I felt a small crack. Large black spots blurred my vision, and anger filled my body. God damn it, injected with Anti-Healing-Factor Serum not once, but _twice_ in a span on five hours? Ugh.

Wade and Logan ran up next to me, trying their best to understand why I hadn’t healed. I told them about the vial in my leg and that I would be okay (it came out more like “Anti *pant* healing factor… *pant*…Wear off… *pant/groan*… be…fine.”). Then I rolled over and pulled a shirt out of my utility belt, while motioning towards a nearby tree. I felt Taoski watching this go down pleasantly, and it pissed me off even more. “Wade, quickly, I need a splint.” Logan helped me lean against the fountain, then with a whisper in his ear, went to get Taoski. Wade quickly snapped off two branches and brought them to me. With pained gasps through my nose and a bleeding lip (from biting it), I placed one stick on each side of my knee, ripped the shirt along one of the seams, and tightly wound it around the branches and my leg. I then used my shifting to create a protective layer of skin around the splint. It wouldn’t help me stand, but I would ensure that I don’t lose it.

When Logan came back, he helped me stand and the three of us looked towards the guard I hated the most. He smiled at us. “Don’t worry Alexa, the serum won’t hurt the baby.”

“What baby?” Logan spoke to Taoski, but looked at me –well, my stomach. Wade did too, and after a few seconds, they spoke at the same time. “What does he mean?”

“Oh, she didn’t tell you?” He smiled again. “She alone holds the new generation of La Iniciativa de Hueso.”

“Shut up.” I pulled Logan forward as I walked towards Taoski.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I upset you?” His face was a cocky smile, but he was backing away. With every step (okay, one legged hop, shut up) I took, he took two more. “Want to know who the dad is?”

“I said,” Logan had to hold my waist as both hands launched forward and latched onto Taoski’s neck. I pinned him to the wall and brought my face close to his. “ _Shut. Up._ ”

I wasn’t choking him (yet), so he laughed and grinned again. “I’ll tell you anyway. The Black Ink Beta? My daughter’s boyfriend?”

“Demogorgon?” My hands loosened their grip and I looked down to my stomach. “No.”

“ _Yes._ ” He hissed into my ear. “The spawn of our worst monster (given the name of a demon so terrible in Greek mythology that even his name was taboo), and our best soldier. That child is bred to lead the world’s next Hydra.” Using all of the anger I had, I shoved a single knuckled punch into the highest point of his jawline (just under the ear) and dislocated his jaw. I panted angrily, but soon it was fear, and I loosened my grip once again.

I shouldn’t have let go of his neck. And I knew it. Because before I could even process this, a piece of paper was slid into my utility belt, and the hilt of a blade was sticking out of my arm. I gasped and looked down to the slowly growing puddle of blood below my hand. Nausea swept through me again as I was pulled back by Logan, and Wade tackled Taoski. Within seconds, blood splattered the walls as he punched the guard in the face again, and again, and again, and again. Blood (from both me and him) sprayed Wade’s face and collected in a sea of crimson at our feet. Logan was yelling for Wade to stop, asking me if I was okay, swearing ‘fuck, damn it, fuck’ over and over again. The blade still hadn’t been removed from my arm, and I was losing blood too quickly. The room began to sway again as Logan picked me up and ran out of the room.

~~

I could tell by the look on his face, that Logan was scared. He obviously didn’t understand that the Anti-RHF Serum wore off, and even if I did die, I would come back (guaranteed, I had no idea how much I was injected with, so I could be dead for anywhere from a half an hour to about three days, depending). With as much strength as I could muster, I reached up and tapped his chest. “Go… That way.” My hand lazily swiped to the left, and within minutes, we reached the door I desired. Logan sat me down in a chair in front of the security cams, and I grabbed the PA system. With a deep breath, I pressed the button.

“Listen up, Inks. This is the last remaining Alpha, Bruja (Yes, Angel is dead). You may or may not know me, and I may or may not know you. But I know one thing. You hate this shithole. And I also know that you, each and every single one of you, are hunters. Well, guess what? It’s open fucking season.

“Now, to the guards, nurses, trainers, and any other asshole who wears a keycard... In about fifteen minutes, this place is going to blow the fuck up. You have two choices. One, you can lay down and await your fiery death, like Dr. Maddox. Or two, you can run outside in ten minutes, and we’ll _try_ not to hit you anywhere but the head. Either way, you’re dying today.

“And once more, to my fellow Inks, do not hit me, any X-men, Avengers, SHIELD Agents, Deadpool, or The Winter Soldier (that one’s mine). Now, enjoy the music, and enjoy the game.”

That speech took every ounce of strength I had, but I wasn’t done yet. With help, I rolled over to the computer, pulled up _Rise, Rebel, Resist_ by _Otep_ and plugged it into the PA System. With a nod to Logan, he picked me back up and ran out of the room as the lyrics began to play.

 _Perfect little spouses, in perfect little houses…_  
It’s family fun time, let’s commit a hate crime.  
Perfect little spouses, in perfect little houses…  
It’s family fun time, let’s commit a hate crime.  
Perfect little spouses, in perfect little houses…  
It's family fun time, LET'S COMMIT A HATE CRIME.  


~~

As we ran out of the building, “Cease fire!” was yelled by someone, I didn’t care who. When we reached the dune that everyone was in (including Wade, the Purple Inks, and all of the sick), I walked straight for Diablo and Bruce. My knee was still broken, and I barely had enough time to grab Dia's hand before I fainted.

Well, not fainted. Died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be from Diablo's POV, just a warning.


	19. Diablo's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own or claim to own the chapter taken from Robert Louis Stevenson's book, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.   
> Translations:  
> Eres todo lo que me queda = You're all I got left  
> Te amo (mucho) = I love you (so much)  
> Te necesito = I need you

Logan walked out with Bruja, and just as she grabbed my hand, she fell to the ground. Not in a tired way, or a faint even, she literally dropped dead. I saw that she had a splint on her knee, and a cut on her arm that wasn’t healed, which meant they had injected her with the Serum. Damn. “Get us on the plane, and get us out of here. Now.” My black eyes looked over to Bruce (who obviously had a thing for my sister), and he nodded. He looked scared of losing her. With a kiss to her forehead, I picked my twin up and carried her to the X-Men’s plane. I wasn’t letting her go back to SHIELD, or Wade’s, not now. She needed to be somewhere all of us could go, somewhere all of us could be safe. And at the moment, that was Professor Xavier’s.

When the plane started, I laid her down in the back, on a bed and sat next to her.

“Bruja, I know you can’t hear me, but whatever.” I pulled out her favourite book (which I always kept with me. This time, it was hid underneath the bed) and read the first chapter to her. _“Mr. Utterson is a wealthy, well-respected London lawyer, a reserved and perhaps even boring man who nevertheless inspires a strange fondness in those who know him. Despite his eminent respectabili-ty, he never abandons a friend whose reputation has been sullied or ruined._

_Utterson nurtures a close friendship with Mr. Enfield, his distant relative and likewise a respectable London gentleman. The two seem to have little in common, and when they take their weekly walk together they often go for quite a distance without saying anything to one another; nevertheless, they look forward to these strolls as one of the high points of the week._

_As the story begins, Utterson and Enfield are taking their regular Sunday stroll and walking down a particularly prosperous-looking street. They come upon a neglected building, which seems out of place in the neighborhood, and Enfield relates a story in connection with it. Enfield was walking in the same neighborhood late one night, when he witnessed a shrunken, misshapen man crash into and trample a young girl. He collared the man before he could get away, and then brought him back to the girl, around whom an angry crowd had gathered. The captured man appeared so overwhelmingly ugly that the crowd immediately despised him. United, the crowd threatened to ruin the ugly man’s good name unless he did something to make amends; the man, seeing himself trapped, bought them off with one hundred pounds, which he obtained upon entering the neglected building through its only door. Strangely enough, the check bore the name of a very reputable man; furthermore, and in spite of Enfield’s suspicions, it proved to be legitimate and not a forgery. Enfield hypothesizes that the ugly culprit had somehow blackmailed the man whose name appeared on the check. Spurning gossip, however, Enfield refuses to reveal that name._

_Utterson then asks several pointed questions confirming the details of the incident. Enfield tries to describe the nature of the mysterious man’s ugliness but cannot express it, stating, ”I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why.” He divulges that the culprit’s name was Hyde, and, at this point, Utterson declares that he knows the man, and notes that he can now guess the name on the check. But, as the men have just been discussing the virtue of minding one’s own business, they promptly agree never to discuss the matter again._

_He is not easy to describe. . . . And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.”_

I sighed and set the book down. Why she loved Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I’ll never understand. I read it over a hundred times in the past year, nevertheless.

As my warm hands cupped her cold ones, I felt a deep sadness in my heart. I know what happened to her. I know that Kegan is gone, and I don’t know if she’ll ever be back. I let my powers heat up my body and rested my head against her stomach. The baby would be fine, no doubt about it (they would have an RHF too), but I still worried. “I love you, sister. I’m sorry this happened to you, I promise that I will never let something like this happen again. Not to you, not to the child. Just… just make sure you come back, okay?” She couldn’t hear my voice and I know that. But... Somehow, it makes me feel better to talk and read to her.

What you have to understand about dying (especially for us), is it isn’t what the movies make it out to be. You don’t see a tunnel with a white light at the end. You don’t see pearly gates, or rusty ones surrounded by flames either. In fact, you don’t see anything. You’re floating, in complete darkness. And it’s so cold that you’re not sure if you’re actually floating in water, or through the universe itself.

But there is one thing you do know. There are hundreds of people near you. Not near enough that you can touch them, or talk to them, but you can hear them. Crying for help, screaming in pain, repeating their deaths over and over again, or just floating like us. This is purgatory, or so I’ve always guessed, and you wait. Sometimes you’ll ‘sleep’, but you’ll only see your death on an endless cycle until you ‘wake up’. You wait until one of two things happens. A) You are sent to your designated place (I.e. Christians go to Heaven/Hell, Hindus and Buddhists are Reborn, and Atheists cease to exist altogether). Or B) You wake up fully healed and very much alive.

Now, I don’t know about Bruja, but I _always_ hope for the ladder. Another day to see my sister, another day to breathe, to eat, to live. And sometimes, it’s terrifying to think that you may not come back. And right now (and every time she dies), despite all logic, I’m scared shitless that Bruja might not come back.

~~

I stood and looked out the window (we just took off not seconds before) as Bruce tended to Bruja’s wounds, and watched as the place which haunted every single Ink blew up. Orange flames roared against the bits of metal and concrete, which flew in every direction. Some Inks were still down there, shooting and killing their #1 Enemies. I couldn’t help but think of Isa and the hundreds of others who died today. Some Reds were shot with Anti-RHF Weapons (that were salvaged from some of the _many_ Multiverse wars [Including the Deadpool vs. Deadpool war, two years ago]), and many Purple Inks were caught by the Black Inks. Speaking of Black Inks, I wonder how many died in the explosion. Carmen and her group were able to neutralize more than half of them (their powers, I mean) and trap them in one of the levels.

It didn’t matter anymore. It was finally over. My three sisters were avenged, and so was Thiago, Arno, Isa, Kegan, Alejo, and the thousands of others. I just pray that they can all rest peacefully now.

I turned away from the window and watched Banner. It was obvious he thought I wasn’t listening, let alone watching, because as he finished bandaging her arm (her knee was now casted), he leaned over and kissed her. “Make sure you come back to me. To us.”

~~

Two hours out of the 3:29 (hours:minutes) of the flight, Bruja woke up. That was about ten minutes ago, and we decided to just cuddle. That is, until she started asking questions.

“Dia?” I felt her head shift to look up at me and I hummed in response. “Did Maddox ever call you Alexander?”

My eyes snapped open and I looked at her. “Bruja, it’s over, he’s dead. You don’t have to think about that.”

“So he did.” Bruja sat up and looked at me. She was still covered in blood, and the wounds hadn’t completely healed yet (and wouldn’t for a while). “Holy shit. You knew, didn’t you?” She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me. It was a letter from our father, one that he put in her file, and was eerily similar to the one he placed in mine. After skimming through it, I nodded slowly. “Oh, what? You didn’t think to tell me that? How long have you known?”

“I found out two days before the Hydra Slaughter.” I ripped the letter in half and looked at her. “I meant to tell you, but you abandoned us, Bru.”

“Excuse me? I _abandoned_ you?”

“Yes!” I violently stood up and clenched my now flaming hands. “You left us when we needed you most! They all _died_! You were the last one, the last person who could lead us, and where were you? Nevada? Hiding away, collecting money and selling secrets to SHIELD, of all god damn people?”

She got up and punched me. Hard. “How fucking dare you. You lost two of your sisters, three I guess. But I lost someone too. I lost a daughter and then a husband less than a year and a half later! I was mad with grief and blacked out for months at a time!” When I looked back up at her, she was crying. She hadn’t noticed that Bruce was standing in the doorway, watching. Or maybe she had, I don’t know. “I… I’m sorry I left you, Dia. But fuck you if you think I left to betray you! And fuck you for not telling me _you knew_!”

She wasn’t wrong. Isa and Thiago were the last of her family (that she knew of). Just like she was the last of mine, and I lost her. She collapsed to the ground and leaned against the wall. Her broken knee was in a cast, and she couldn’t move it, so that leg was straight, but the other was to her chest with her left elbow resting on it. Her hands hid her face and tears ran down her face, leaving streaks of white skin showing underneath all of the blood. I sighed, crawled next to her, and pulled her close. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that, sis. Eres todo lo que me queda.”

She scoffed a laugh and muttered “Te amo, te necesito.”

“Te amo _mucho_.” I smiled and kissed the top of her head. “I need you too, Bruja.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I guess I never told you this, but Dia's fire is purple... Whoops...  
> Santuario de las Lajas, Colombia (I really want to go here): https://www.google.com/search?q=Santuario+de+las+Lajas%2C+Colombia&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8  
> This part of the movie, for those who don't remember: https://youtu.be/3PxEiQl4few?t=147

Slowly, I opened my eyes and groaned. The bright lights of an infirmary (not the SHILED one?) blinded me for a few seconds. Pain surged through my stomach, the room began to sway, and before I could fully comprehend the situation, there was a bucket full of bile in my hands. A voice in my head urged me to let it out, and not to hold it back. At first, out of exhausted confusion, I thought it was Kegan. But as the room around me stopped spinning and I could finally see my surroundings, I sadly realized it wasn’t her.

_I’m sorry, Bruja. I wish she was here as well._

“Professor Xa--” I coughed up more bile, and once I set down the bucket, I rubbed my slowly growing stomach. “Professor Xavier?”

“I’m here.” He gently placed his hand on mine and it felt nice to have someone so kind near me. I needed it.

“How long have I been out?”

“About a month.”

I groaned. Four weeks? That makes sense, I suppose. I was easily healing and regenerating for five hours straight, and _I died._ But where were we? “You’re at the school, in the medical wing. You’re safe… All three of you are.”

“Three?” I grumbled at the realization of what he meant. There’s me, Diablo, and... _The child_. “Right.”

“I understand your displeasure.” I could feel him roaming my mind, watching the memories, feeling the pain. But for some reason, I didn’t fight it. “But I do want you to know, that no matter your choice, there is a bed and meal for you, here.”

“He’s right.” A gruff voice and smoke wafted through the now open doorway, and there stood the second half of my DNA. I smiled at him and sat up. “Though, don’t be bringing Wade around.”

I scoffed a laugh. “Yeah… No promises.” Logan sneered at me and then smiled. His canines showed and it was nice to see the small glint in his eyes. And something (or more than likely, someone * _i’m lookin at u Charles_ *) in my head told me that he rarely ever smiled. “Speak of the devil!” I leaned forward and smiled to the man in the doorway.

Wade walked in behind Logan, holding flowers and a grin on his masked face. “I brought you five burritos, two milkshakes, ten churros, some flowers –whatchamacallits, Dahlia’s?-, a shirt, and the family.”

After Wade tossed me the shirt, I pulled it over the hospital gown –and then took the gown off-, smiled and leaned to look behind the two men. “Peter is here?”

“So is Ben,” Peter walked in holding the hand of a young child, not any older than five years old, with shaggy brown hair and eyes just like mine. It took me all of 30 seconds to realize that this kid was the one that Peter asked me to look after. Ben Wilson-Parker, cute as hell, and my technical half-brother. “Ben, this is your big sister…” Pete’s eyes went wide and he stared at me. I could tell he didn’t know what to call me. No doubt, neither of them wanted Ben to know my alias. So I smiled and looked towards Ben.

“Alexa, I’m Alexa. And that big guy over there is my twin, Alexander.” I nodded towards the sleeping goliath next to the window. Since our talk, he hadn’t left my side. And apparently, Ben had met both me and Diablo when I was sleeping. Or so Xavier told me, considering I’d been comatose for so long.

Ben grinned at me and immediately ran and jumped into the bed. His small face rested on my collar bones as his arms wrapped around my ribs. I was so stunned that I didn’t move for a few seconds –and everyone was staring, including Dia, who woke up-, until Wade grinned and held up his phone for a picture. Slowly, my arms wrapped around the small boy and I gently kissed the top of his head. When I did so, he murmured something I didn’t quite catch, so I pulled away and looked at him. “Hm?”

“I said,” Ben lifted his head and smiled at me. “I knew I had a sister and a brother. I’ve been waiting for you two.”

Diablo grinned and stood up, which immediately gained Ben’s attention. “Wanna fly?” It had been a long time since I had seen my brother smile like that. The sounds of camera shutters went off as Alexander picked Ben up by the waist and lifted the child above his head. “Vroooooooom!” The last of my family made airplane noises over the giggles of the child as he walked around the room. And I can’t lie, I laughed too.

After a few moments, he held Ben to his chest as he walked back to the bed. But when Dia tried to set the child down, he held on tighter and reached up to touch Alexander’s eyelid. “Why are your eyes black…?” I was honestly scared for a moment… Though, I’m not altogether sure why.

“Because I’m a monster, here to take your soul!” Dia gently tackled Ben and tickled his stomach with the biggest smile I’d ever seen on him.

This was interrupted all too soon.

“Hello, Bruja.” The blue man, who was with Professor Xavier at the meeting, walked in and smiled. “My name is Hank. I’ll be checking up on the baby, is that okay?” His eyes were kind, and his smile even more so. There was an all-around good energy about him, which calmed my nerves. With a deep breath, I nodded and pushed down the blanket to my hips. He handed me a bottle of water and motioned for me to drink it.

_You’re dehydrated._

Xavier nodded when I looked at him. But, with awkward smiles, everyone turned to leave the room and give me privacy. But before he could, I reached over and swatted Peter’s hand. “Peter, will you stay with me?”

“Yeah, of course!” The teen sat down next to me and took my hand. “I remember when I had to get one of these, for Ben, that is.” I looked over to him with an eyebrow raised and he breathed a laugh. “Oh, we never told you that story? Well, Wade pissed off this wizard once –no surprise there-, who ended up casting a spell. The spell was that the next person he had sex with –no one knew we were together-, would become pregnant, regardless of gender.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah,” Peter held his stomach and laughed. I sipped my water and listened to him talk. “It was a crazy nine months. I was actually supposed to have a miscarriage, because of the curse? But thanks to Dr. Strange, I had a safe and healthy pregnancy.” I hummed in thought and wondered if I would actually keep my child. My eyes looked down to the small bump and I could feel Professor Xavier in my head. It was weird. He was distant, but never far away.

“This is going to be cold, I’m sorry.” Hank walked over and squeezed the jelly onto my stomach. I raised my fists and rested them above my head with a wince. Discomfort radiated through the lower half of me as the ultrasound wand applied pressure and wiggled around. The man hummed in thought for a second before pulling away. “Well, everything seems to be okay here.” He smiled again as he handed me a paper towel to wipe away the ultrasound gel. For the first time, I noticed how wonderful of a smile he actually had. Four large fangs gently tug at his lips when he begins to smile, but they stand out (in an aesthetically pleasing way) once he reaches full grin. But, this all faded away with his next sentence. “I understand you may want to… Terminate?” Peter’s jaw fell open, and so did mine. _Damn it, Charles!_ “I personally don’t have the expirence for it. But it is a fairly easy proced--”

“ _No_.” I shuddered and pulled my knees to my chest, as memories of the last time something… The cold metal, the stinging of needles, the stretching and tearing… The pain. Not just physical, but mental. “Do whatever you have to, to make sure it’s fine. But nothing, _nothing_ , is…”

“I think you should go, Hank.” Peter stood and squeezed my hand. The look on his face told Beast that it wasn’t his fault, and that there was a hidden element to the story that not even Peter knew. As he escorted the man out, I stood and ruffled through the backpack next to the bed. I was fucking tired of this room, of that bed, of… Of… I looked down to my exposed stomach with a grimace. I was tired of _everything_. I found a pair of shorts easily enough, and my belt was sitting on the windowsill.

When I went to slide clip on my utility belt, a folded pair of papers fell out. Curiosity filled me to the brim and when I picked it up, I immediately felt the need to be with Diablo. “Peter, would you get Alexander for me, please?”

As Peter left, my shaking hands unfolded the paper. Our birth certificates! No fucking way. But how did they get there? They weren’t in my… _Taoksi._ I remember now, before Wade killed him, it must have been this that he slipped into my belt.

“Bruja?” Diablo stuck his head in the door, and when I looked at him, he immediately walked in, closed, and locked the door. “What is it?” I turned away from the window and faced him, holding out the paper in my still shaking hands.

“It’s our birth certificates.”

Hurriedly, he took the papers from my hands and stared at them. We were both under the impression that when The Bone Initiative took us in, they found any and all paperwork about us and destroyed it. All evidence of our existence was erased from the face of the Earth, and legally speaking, we didn’t exist anymore. No one there did. So as you can imagine, us finding this… it was equal to a forensic anthropologist finding 5,000 year old bones. It was _us_! It was our past… _It had our mother._

After a few seconds, Diablo let out a breath I hadn’t realised he was holding, and hid his face in one of his hands. “Vanna Castellanos…” The name crawled its way out of Dia’s throat, and I immediately knew that something was wrong.

“What is it?” My eyes went wide and I placed my hand on his knee. “Oh god, she was a mission, wasn’t she?”

Our eyes met for the briefest of seconds before he got up and punched the wall, flaming fists and all. Without hesitation or fear, I jumped up and pulled his fist out of the wall. The fire burned me, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t encountered before. _Perks of being half dragon, I guess._ I kicked myself for that thought. I’m not half dragon anymore, now am I? “Dia!” the skin on my hands began to become third burns. Most of the tissue on my hands was gone by now, and you could see the bones beneath the thin layers. I wasn’t feeling any pain anymore, due to the nerve endings being destroyed, which actually made the next part easier. “You need to calm down!” I placed my palm on his and laced our fingers together. This had only happened once, and that was the day of the slaughter.

**HAL NOTE: “Okay, so you know that scene in Twitches, when they’re killing the Darkness, and the light is in the middle of them? Yeah? Good. Because this scene is _kind of_ like that, except they’re trying to cancel each other out and not some magical evil force.”**

His black eyes looked directly into my blue ones and all I could see was pain. The fire within him grew larger, and flames practically burst from his chest. It took all of the strength I had not to wince and pull away. At this point, I was pretty much a walking flame, with fragments of my face poking through. I felt a similar orange light from my stomach as I did when I was battling Arson, and the two of us combusted in our own flames. As my grip on his hands tightened, we battled for dominance. Purple flames whipped and crackled against the bright orange ones and still, our eye contact was not lost.

After a few moments, Diablo faltered. Not by much, mind you, but enough. Quickly, I devoured every last spark of his with my own, and pulled him close. Together, we collapsed and he laid his head on my lap. Broken, wretched, sobs tore out of his throat and all I could do was listen to his nearly incoherent words. Here’s what I pieced together:

Back before Alexander was Diablo, when we were in Stage I together, his eyes weren’t black. In fact, one was pale blue (grey almost), and the other was an incredibly golden brown.

Four years later, after his initiation into the Red Inks and Stage III, Diablo (still pre-black eyes) was sent on his first mission. A woman of Hispanic descent, who was a threat to all that we ‘stood for’, named Vanna Castellanos was sighted outside of Santuario de las Lajas, Colombia. Naturally, Diablo didn’t question why it was _him_ who was sent, until he saw her. “I shit you not, Al, she _had my eyes_.”

From his Observation Point (or Base of Fire), Diablo watched the woman –who apparently looked just like me- stare “ _right the fuck at me._ ” Now, keep in mind that this was not only impossible (or so he thought), but insane.

“I saw it, for a fraction of a second. She looked right at me and whispered something. She’d seen my eyes or something. It was like Superman or some shit, she had Telescopic Vision.”

Now, for those of you who weren’t trained to know and recognize mutations: Telescopic Vision is technically classified as a ‘Superpower,’ and allows the user to see far beyond any human standard. You may know a few people (real or fiction) who have used it (Superman, Peeper, Blossom *yes from Power Puff Girls*, and if you’re into Naruto, Byakugan Users).

This was all I got from him, until he stopped crying and sat up. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I closed my eyes, prayed, and shot. When I opened my eyes, she was lying dead on the ground.”

Without knowing what else to do, I leaned forward and rested my forehead on his shoulder.

_Oh, god._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A reader (probably): Oh no! Do the twins have a new mission?   
> Me: Honestly? I don't even know what I'm doing anymore, man.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To make up for not having posted in a while, have a shitty b&w sketch of Thiago, a colour sketch of Isa, and a short story~  
> Photos (b/c AO3 wouldn't let me upload the pics onto the story): http://s1148.photobucket.com/user/slaughter_doll/profile/

It was many years ago when Isa first played a round of Snow War with me (snowball fights, for you IRL people). She was 7, and absolutely adorable. She’d never played before. She had pink earmuffs on with a matching jacket, blue and teal spotted leggings, and white boots. I was partaking in a stupid challenge between the Alpha’s, so I wasn’t wearing a jacket (last man to withstand the cold gets a few hundred bucks, and I was planning on taking Isa to NorCal, to a festival with that money).

“So… You throw it at people?” I nodded. “Ice?” She looked down to the snowball in her hands. “ _At people_? That seems mean.” She looked up at me innocently with those big teal eyes of hers, and a devious grin spread on her lips as she lifted her arms and threw it at me. I squealed and turned, letting it hit me on the back. Kegan was having an off day –she and Arno got into an argument-, and so her heat melted it the second it hit my skin. Her giggle echoed around me as I ran towards her with a grin.

When I reached her, I took her in my arms and pulled her close, my face hiding in the crook of her neck. She laughed and wrapped her small arms around me. When I kneeled down, my knees stung from the cold as the water seeped through my jeans, but I didn’t care, I just cared about my kid.

“Mama?” She pulled away and held me at arm’s length.

“Yeah baby?” I cupped the side of her face and rubbed my thumb over her tattoo with a smile. I loved my daughter so much it hurt. “What’s on your mind?”

“What…” Her fingers fidgeted in her mittens. “What was your first mission like?”

I let out a long, shaky breath and let my arms drop to the ground. She’d asked me this before, and my excuse was always ‘I tell you when you’re older,’ but she’s only two years away from her first mission, so I thought I might as well tell her.

“I was scared. It was the first time I killed someone. _Really_ killed someone, without a healing factor. No re-do, no coming back. And it didn’t help that I was a brand new leader, if I failed, I would let everyone down.” My daughter sat down on the snow in front of me and set her hand on mine. “I was only two years older than you, you know. The gun was too big for me. And it clattered in my hands as the man laughed at me.” I sighed again.

’ _You won’t do it, kid._ _You’re afraid. Go find your mommy._ ’

My hands clenched into fists. “The kick on the pistol nearly knocked me on my ass, but it didn’t. The fear did. One look at his body and I collapsed and started sobbing.”

_We were fine with the fact that we killed him. But the fear, that was something else. We weren’t scared of the future missions, we weren’t scared of being Alpha. We were scared because it meant we were officially Maddox’s whipping boy._

“Taoski says I won’t get to my first mission.” Isa looked down to her hands and grimaced. I hoped to god that Taoski was right. I didn’t want her to _ever_ feel the pain that I did. But, she had to. It was our way. “That I’m too sick.”

“Well, that’s just not true, now is it?” I looked down to her. “If that was true, what Ink would you be?”

“Purple.” Her voice was small. And she looked up to me with wet eyes.

Again, my hand cupped her face and I placed my forehead on hers. “Right. And what Ink are you?”

“Red.”

“That’s right, baby. You’re Red Ink, and that means that you have a family of 300 bad asses, and your parents are the leaders of this family. And you want to know something?” She nodded in response. “Your parents are going to do everything they can to make sure you get the throne when we retire, because baby, you are _so_ talented, and you would make a wonderful leader.” This, of course, was a lie. I was going to get her out of here. Away from this shithole. She as going to grow up a normal kid –who could kick your ass, but still normal-, never having taken a life, never having _known_ the life of a mercenary. And even if this didn’t happen, she would save them. She would get fed up of watching people die, and she would save her family.

“Hey girly!”

A deep voice echoed from behind us, and Isa stood up and ran towards it with a beam. “Daddy!” Thiago scooped her up in his big arms, kissed her forehead, and smiled at me.

“Hey, babe.” I mouthed ‘hi,’ and kissed him gently. “What are you girls doing?”

Isa whispered in his ear as I bent down and made a snowball. Then, with a smile, Isa jumped out of his arms and I hit him on the shoulder. His jaw fell open as he wiped off the ice and water. “You’re going to regret that, babe.” He smirked at me, and I returned it with a raised brow. Then, he rushed at me. I turned to run, but he caught me and wrapped his arms around my waist, making me squeal and giggle against his weight. My hands wrapped around his forearms as my husband leaned down and kissed my neck. “I love you, so much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note: Isa is seven, Bruja is thirteen, and Thiago is fifteen in the story. In the picture, Thiago is seventeen.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How about that playful father figure!Wade?? 
> 
> Also, I'm so sorry for the boring chapter and the long wait.

I didn’t sleep that night, at all. I tossed and turned all night, thinking about my father, my mother… About Kegan. I tried and tried to remember something, _anything_ , from my childhood. But I just couldn’t and it was frustrating. So with a groan, I moved from the window (where I watching the sunrise two hours ago) and grabbed a small backpack from my box. I filled it mainly with weapons, but a few books and even my SHIELD laptop. This was a school, after all. And if I couldn’t find a quiet place to read after my visit, then what was the point of having a school in the first place?

For once, I decided to look normal, so I slid on some high-waist denim shorts and a grey crop top with an x-ray of lungs on it. I also grew out the side of my head, and changed the pigment around my eyes to shades of brown for eyeshadow. But, I refused to hide _any_ of my tattoos. They were still a part of me! Then, to top it all off, I slid on a pleather jacket, because it was 58° outside, and that’s fucking freezing for a West Coaster like me.

~~

The campus was actually really nice. Last time I was there, I didn’t really get the chance to look around. Outside of the castle, there were rolling grass hills and a forest. Behind the ‘X-Mansion’ (as I heard some of the kids call it), was a football field except there were three hoops (a good 200 feet in the air) on each side, and the field itself was oval. There was a game setting up, but I didn’t know what kind. “Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll be back in time to see it.”

With a smile at a cute mutant who winked at me, I pulled up the hood on my jacket and kept moving towards the south side of the building where my fellow Inks where.

~~

There were a few up and about, including Noob and Maria. The rest were either sleeping or reading. But something was wrong, there wasn’t even 600 there! Where were the other 900?

As a nurse passed by, I gently touched her shoulder. “Excuse me?” I smiled at her. “Where are the others?”

“Others, Ma’am?” If she had an eyebrow, it would have raised. “What others?”

“The other Inks. There should be more. _A lot_ more.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry ma’am…” She flipped through her clipboard and shook her head sadly. “There aren’t any others.”

“Oh.” I breathed the word, but didn’t hear myself say it. My voice was too tiny, too insignificant. “ _Oh_.” Before the nurse left, she handed me an envelope, with Charles’s handwriting on it. A hand quickly sought out and wiped away tears as the other opened it.

_Bruja,_

_First, I would like to offer my condolences for the many lives lost. I know you knew several of them. Know that they died fighting valiantly._

_Secondly, I am very sorry to ask this of you, but while you and your guests are here, I must request that none of you take any contracts offered until you and I talk. I understand how inconvenient this is, but for the safety of my students, I cannot have upset contractors on the premises in case a mission does not go as planned._

_Since you no longer have a facility that assigns missions, there is something and someone I would like to introduce you to. We will talk more about that at the Gala at The Avengers Tower tonight._

_Sincerely,  
Charles Xavier._

What Gala? What even _is_ a Gala? Is it like a ball? What does one wear to one of these things? What type of people will be there? Rich people? Important people? People I’ve been hired by in the past?

With a frustrated sigh, I shoved the envelope in my backpack and walked into the room. I recognised a few people, but one specifically caught my eye. _Firecracker_ (Real name: Cole)! The Purple Ink Alpha. So far three Alphas –including me- had come back from the dead, who’s next? Demogorgon (that would seriously suck, considering his _child_ is growing in me)?

He’s only 17 now, but was 14 when he became Alpha. His name doesn’t come from his hair colour, but instead his personality. That fucker could start a banter war with you, and win within minutes. He was _incredibly_ sassy, and terrifyingly smart. With narrow, peach coloured eyes and shaggy unkempt red hair, he was also downright _adorable_.

“Look what the sarcastic cat dragged in.” I took my hood off and walked towards one of my greatest training buddies.

“Yeah,” Firecracker turned and smiled at me. “Did it hurt?” Both of us laughed and he pulled me close. He smelt like…books. “I thought you were dead, Bruja.”

“I was gonna say the same thing.” I sighed into his chest. “Where have you been?”

“Well,” Cole laughed and pulled back for a moment. He had gotten more tattoos (but his purple one removed?), including _Kegan_ on his neck in a beautiful font. If she was here, she’d laugh at that. His other half always loved her like a sister. “Here. I’m a student.”

 _“What_?” My eyes narrowed and I pushed him away. “You were here? In the fucking school? You realize that I just brought down the damned facility and could have used _your help_!” My fists were clenched so tight that my knuckles were white. “And you what, hid away here? Removed your tattoo? _Abandoned_ your Inks, _which you are supposed to take care of_?” The volume of my voice raised significantly, gaining the interest of every person in the room. Most of the Purple Inks were muttering ‘ _Damn right,_ ’ and other phrases, some more rude than others.

“I know,” I shied away from his reaching touch, which made him sigh. “I’m sorry.”

“Fuck you.” I spat back. And before he could say anything, I walked away. As the door behind me slammed shut, I could hear the Purple Inks clapping and yelling their thanks, but I didn’t want it.

~~

When I made it back to the field, the game had started. And after a few minutes, here’s what I managed to understand. There’s seven players on each team (all of whom can fly and have healing factors), four balls that are controlled by telekinetics and three goalposts for each team.

There’s two balls called Bludgers that pretty much fly around and try to kill you, but there’s also two players on each team who defend their mates from getting hurt. The other two balls are called –I think- the Quaffle and the Snitch. The Quaffle is like the soccer ball, in the way that four players are dedicated to getting it through the goals. But the seventh players have a different mission altogether, they have to chase around a tiny golden ball. First person to catch it, gets 100 points and the game is over.

The game’s called Quidditch (which may or may not have sparked a memory from when I was a kid. We’ll get to that later). At least, that’s what the student said when I asked.

With my book in my hands, I switched between watching the game and reading. Every now and again, kids would scream in joy and I would sarcastically join in (which earned a few playful shoves from kids around me). I liked it here. A lot. Maybe I would get out of the business for a while and enroll in school. I’d actually never been. But then again, I’d have to see Firecracker, and I _don’t_ want to deal with that. Not now. To have your tattoo removed… It’s treachery! I don’t care how badly the facility treated you, that tattoo ties you to your brothers, your sisters, your fellow inks of unidentified genders! To remove it is to say ‘I don’t care about any of you.’ And for an Alpha of all god damned people to do it? That’s like your mother leaving you in the middle of the night with a note saying ‘I never cared about you.’

_Ding!_

A text notification snapped me out of my train of thought. It was Wade.

**_Hey baby girl! U goin’ to the gala thingy tonight?_ **

_Nah. Maybe. I don’t know. What the hell do I wear?  
_

**_A dress. Or a suit, maybe. I dunno._ **

_Hm. Maybe._

**_C’mon, Ben and Petey will be there. And ur favourite dad ever!_ **

_Logan’s going?_

**_Ouch. Just for that, ur grounded and ur going whether you like it or not, young lady! Logan’ll give u a ride at 7. Be ready._ **

 

I laughed at his response and got up.

 

~FEW HOURS LATER~

 

“Um,” I looked over to Alexander who brought a dress into my room. “ _What_ is that thing?”

He sighed at me and played with his cufflinks. “It’s a dress for the Gala.”

“I’m not wearing a dress.” With a scowl, I returned to my hair, shaking it gently and focusing on changing the colour. I’d been trying different ones all day. Blue, Green, Pink (ew), Red… You name it. But a vibrant lavender that faded into a soft blue was absolutely perfect. The pigment around my eyes had turned black, to make flawless (and non-smudging) fierce wings and almost ethereal eyeshadow, without makeup actually being needed. I had also taken the liberty of hiding all of my tattoos, for the sake of Stark Industries and it’s guests –besides, Noob texted me and said everyone was wearing makeup to hide them. “Anyways, who bought that?”

“You did.”

My head snapped over to look at him with a glare. “Oh great, using my money on useless things.” I stood up off of the counter (yes, I was sitting in the sink) and snatched the stupid thing out of his hands with a groan. “But _Dia_ , I hate, hate _, hate_ dresses… They’re girly and stupid.”

“Put some clothes on, sis.” (Yeah, okay, I had a habit of walking around without a shirt, but I _was_ alone!) My puppy eyes didn’t work on him. “I have strict orders from Tony Stark himself to NOT let you wear a suit.”

With a huff, I pulled the dress over my head, careful not to knock away any of the weapons I had hidden -the ones that weren’t under my skin anyway. It wasn’t all that bad I guess, at least it was short. The top was a High-Neck Corset, and the bottom was fluffy and barely touched my knees. The top portion was white cloth with thick black lace and the bottom was just black. When I pulled my hair out of the dress and looked in the mirror, I grimaced. I’d never worn a dress before, much less gone to a rich gala.

“Hey, Al, will you help me?” When I looked over, I caught him staring. “I’ve, uh, never seen you without Ink and I was wondering if you could help me hide…” His hands did a general swipe over his face and I smiled sadly. He meant his tattoos.

“Yeah,” I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him into the bathroom. “I was thinking about using this stuff, but I realised I didn’t need to.” I pulled out the Kat Von D Lock It Concealer and put some on my wrist. As I held it up to his face, I smiled and realized that over the course of my coma, I’d become darker (due to the sun in the room) and we were the same shade. With a pleased smile, I gently used a brush and painted the concealer on. After a few moments, I was done, and Dia looked into the mirror. He looked… Weird. Not exactly nostalgic, but not exactly sad either.

“Are you okay, Alex?” My hand gently touched his arm. “It’s weird, I know.”

Both of us gazed into the mirror for a moment before I snapped out of my daze and realized something. “Oh! I got you something else…” He looked down at me in surprise and I held up a small wrapped thing. Inside were two contacts, one brown and one grey, but outside of that was all white, so his eyes would look like they did… _Before_ (Before the battle, I ordered them online, specially made). When he saw them, he was so excited, he didn’t wait to put them in. And when he did, my heart nearly stopped. I hadn’t seen Pre-Diablo Alexander in so long…

As we stood and stared in the mirror, it finally hit me that we _were actually twins_. Dia had dyed his mini-hawk purple yesterday, and we looked so alike now. I never realized it before, but it all made sense now.

_Ding!_

“Where are you? It’s time to go, come on.”

My phone going off alerted me that our ride was here, and with a sigh, I told Alex that we should go.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update sucks, but there will be Bruja x Bruce fluff in the next one, I promise! Oh, and only two or more three chapters left. Be ready for one hell of a cliff hanger...
> 
> Bruja’s Drink (sounds delicious [DRINK RESPONSIBLY])  
> Manhattan  
> 2 1/2 oz Bourbon Whiskey  
> 1/4 oz Sweet Vermouth  
> 1 dash Angostura Bitters  
> 1 twist of Orange Peel  
> 1 Maraschino Cherry
> 
> Also, I’m going to pretend that 95% of AoU didn’t actually happen. (I.e., Bruce x Natasha bc fuCK OFF MARVEL. I have an entire rant about that, but w/e)

Outside of the school sports field, Logan was standing in a suit, waiting for us. “Wow, I didn’t expect you to look to snazzy.” I smiled and hugged him.

“Shut up.” He snuffed out his Cigar and grunted at me. “Let’s go.”

With a small laugh, I turned to get into the car, but was interrupted. “I’m not letting you leave without a picture!” When Diablo and I turned, we noticed that Rogue was holding a camera. Behind her, Kitty Pryde was rolling her eyes, and Cyclopes and Jean Grey were smiling.

“Uhhh,” I put my hands up. “No.” Believe it or not, we’d never had pictures taken of us (to our knowledge). We were trained to believe that it was evidence, not only of our existence –remember, we don’t exist-, but that we were at one place at a certain time and that could be tied to, well, anything. Stupid, I know. But it’s how we were raised.

“But you guys look so good!” Rogue pouted. “Please?”

Dia and I groaned, then stood next to one another with fake smiles. He leaned down so we could both fit in the picture and I rested my hands on my hips. It took all of 2 minutes for us to realize that something was wrong. “How long do pictures take?” I gritted my teeth and whispered to my brother.

“I… I don’t know.”

“So they’re probably fucking with us?”

“Probably.” He looked over to me and grinned. “Counter-Strike?”

“Definitely.”

Four of our friends were laughing, but was interrupted by the fifth. “Let’s. Go.” He’d lit another cigar and was incredibly grumpy, per the norm. All of us smiled and climbed into the back of his truck. After a few minutes, Rogue handed me a picture and smiled. “You look great, darlin’.”

~~

After fifteen minutes of heading south-west, we arrived. Avengers tower was… Fancy. And it was filled to the brim with people, which made me immediately uncomfortable.

“Bruja!” Maria and Carmen (-cough- Noob) waved me over to the bar and smiled. When I reached them, I pulled them into a hug.

“I’m glad you guys are okay,” I held Noob at arm’s length and smiled again. They returned it and quickly went to back to chatting. I then rested my elbow against the bar and asked the bartender for a Manhattan. It took a moment for him to answer, so I looked around the party. The music was pretty awesome at the moment. Some remix of Disturbia by Rihanna and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, and my boots tapped the floor gently as I watched the crowd. Charles was in the corner, talking to Tony. Steve, Thor, and someone else were standing by the window, debating something with smiles. And, looking absolutely amazing in his suit –the shaggy brown hair, dorky glasses, and stylish tux… It gave me butterflies. Shut up.-, was Bruce by the door, a small flute of champagne in his hand. I was distracted from this new form of art, by the slightly distressed bartender. “I’m sorry, I was told not to allow you to drink, Miss Maddox.”

“Honey,” I leant forward and pulled him close by his collar. “I am a crazy, hormonal, psychotic kill-for-hire, stuck in a room with high and mighty rich people –which bothers me-, so it would be wise for you, and your future, to get me a god damned drink.” His eyes went wide and he nearly dropped the glass in his hands. “ _Now._ ” He quickly fumbled around the bar, trying to get me my drink, without pissing me off. It nearly made me laugh.

Once I received my drink, I walked off, only to have been stopped by one of my favourite Avengers (the second, obviously, or third maybe? Peter is family, after all). “Young lady Bruja, you look beautiful.” Thor walked over with a large smile and a tall man next to him. “I would like you to meet my friend, Vision.” I set down my drink, hugged Thor, and then turned towards Vision. Needless to say, this Vision _was_ a vision. He was gorgeous.

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” he reached out his hand and smiled to me kindly. “Alexa.”

Now, I’m not saying that I blushed –because I didn’t! Shut up!-, but I did smile shyly and take his hand. “I believe the pleasure is mine.” When he let go, I turned around and plucked my drink from the counter, before continuing conversation. When I turned round again, Thor was gone and Vision was looking around with a sort of wonder on his face. “I do not understand this ritual.”

“It’s a party, Vision.” A small sip was taken as I looked over to him with a smile. “They’re fun. Or rather, they’re supposed to be.”

“It is ‘fun’ to dress in uncomfortable clothes, ingest mildly alcoholic beverages that no one seems to enjoy, and make awkward conversation with people you do not know in an over-crowded room?” The golden gem on his forehead gently shone against the darkening lights of the setting sun. “Really?”

I shrugged. “If you are an Avenger and everyone likes you… I suppose so.”

“Are you not an Avenger?”

“No,” I took a healthy gulp of the drink. “I’m a mercenary.”

He hummed in thought and looked over me quickly. “Humans are odd.”

“How so?”

“They do what they can to grant themselves into a place such as Heaven, yet they kill one another for money.”

We nodded together in agreement. “I only kill the ones who deserve it.”

“And how does one decide that?”

“How did you decide that Ultron needed to… Well,” Guilt quickly swept over me as a sad emotion washed over his face. “I-I’m sorry… You know, the only missions I accept are the ones that fit my moral code.”

“Again, how does one decide that?”

All I could do was shrug. In all honesty, it wasn’t _my_ ‘moral code’, it was Maddox’s. And it was even _moral._ Not in the least bit.

After a while, Vision politely nodded to me, then turned and walked off. I watched him with a morbid fascination. _I wonder what his blood would taste like._ With a start, I quickly shook that thought out of my head, and once again wished that Kegan was here with me. But that sadness faded within seconds. “Someone looks _wonderful_.” I turned and faced the cutest dork ever, who was walking up to me.

“Don’t make me kill you Bruce,” I laughed and nudged the scientist next to me. “You’re the only Avenger I can actually hold a conversation with.”

“Aw,” He smiled and pushed his glasses up. “You love me, admit it.”

“Hmm,” I turned and winked at him, which made his cheeks flare up red. God, he _was_ adorable. And I was stuck staring at him, and he at me. _Until_ Charles Xavier rolled up and interrupted us.

“May I speak with you, Bruja?”

“Yeah.” I had questions for him. I leaned over and kissed Bruce on the cheek, then followed the Professor to a corner near the door. Once we got there, I turned to him, downed my drink and angrily met his eyes. “Did you know?”

“Did I know what?” He looked deep into my eyes, and began to search my mind. And I let him. I showed him the memory of Firecracker, and then I showed him how _pissed I was._ He was silent for a minute before sighing. “Yes. I knew.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” I scoffed. “Wait, if you knew he was one of us… Then _why the fuck did you ask me about the initiative?_ Surely he would have told you everything, **_years_** before I did.”

“He asked me not to tell anyone, Alexa.” I was so angry at that bullshit statement that I stopped listening to him. He continued to babble for a minute, until something caught my attention. Steve was dragging Tony out of the party, and into the hall. Peter, Wade, and Dia weren’t too far behind. That was my cue to follow them. With an apologetic smile, I handed Charles my drink and followed them.

~~

I walked outside just as I heard possibly the worst thing I could have from my future ‘grandfather’.

“You’re a lab rat, Rodgers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.” Steve winced as Tony spat this angrily. The brown liquid in his glass nearly spilled onto the floor. He was drunk. “

I nearly punched him then. “Is that what you think of us?” Both of the men turned to see me, Wade, Peter, and Dia standing next to one another. “Wade, Alex, and I have all literally been lab rats… And Peter’s powers came from a science experiment.” I panted and placed my hands on my stomach. “Hell... My baby is from ‘a bottle.’”

“Bruja… No.” Cap looked legitimately hurt, and tried to fix the situation, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it. So I turned and left. I could tell that Dia was angry, and so was Wade. Peter though? He just looked injured, as if someone had stabbed him in the stomach.

After everything that day (Firecracker, the missing 900 inks, Charles, _everything_ ), I couldn’t take it. But then, an idea sparked, and I practically ran back into the party.

~~

“Hey, Bruce,” I nervously walked up to him, my hands toying with the hem of that stupid fucking dress. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

He smiled at me and took my hand. “Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh! Here, have that hella awesome remix I was talking about:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtH2eLFL-nc


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, sorry.

A few moments ago, we had arrived to Bruce’s room in the tower, and we had just stood there. Staring at one another. Until he stepped forward and grabbed my hand. “Are you okay?”

I nodded weakly. “I’m just…” With a sigh, I looked up into his eyes. “I guess I just need a distraction.”

I guess he took the hint that I wanted something more, because Bruce cupped my face in his large hands before pulling me close and brushing his lips against mine. He practically had to bend over to reach me, considering the 6 inch height difference. Nevertheless, the soft feeling brought tears to my eyes. And only one thing stood in my mind. "Bruja, I love you."

"When a monster loves a woman, can't keep his mind on nothing else. If she is bad, he can't see it. She can do no wrong." Lyrics rung in my head at the song I had only heard once. I placed my forehead on his and cried softly. "I'm a woman, but I'm also a beast, Bruce. Both of us are, but you are the good kind. You save people, and I... I kill them...for money. Hell, I enjoy it. I-I love it. I'm a monster."  


"If you're a monster, I must be the devil." When my blue eyes looked up into the brown ones above me, I saw hints of green. No doubt Hulk had a few things to say, but he wouldn't get the chance. _Not tonight_. Bruce kissed me again, but this time I replied. Our lips pushed together a little harder as salty tears fell down my face. Memories of a similar situation came flooding back, causing me to pull away roughly. Emotions filled me to the brim. I don't know how to explain it, some sort of mix of anger, sadness, nerves, desire, and regret. So I did the only thing I could think of.

I stepped forward and pulled him into a deeper kiss. My arms wrapped around his neck as he cupped my chest with one hand, and unzipped my dress with the other. After he did that, I stepped back, pulled it over my head, threw it across the room, then strutted forward and grabbed him. This time, he was a little more aggressive. He pulled me up, let me wrap my legs around his waist, then he pushed me against the wall and began to attack my neck with kisses. Tears were replaced with whimpers and gasps. Bad thoughts were replaced by a heat and desperate craving that radiated between my legs. I just needed someone to take away the pain, and he did just that. Honestly? He did it with a certain amount of perfection. The kind that kept me moaning the _entire_ time.

 

~~

  
Hours and hours were passed by fucking, talking, laughing, and cuddling. But right now, I was lying next to him, barely covered by a bed sheet, smiling at him as he played with a strand of my obsidian hair (it took too much concentration that I couldn’t maintain to keep my hair purple). “Can you really change your hair colour?" Bruce looked over at me and raised his eyebrow. 

"Yes," I smiled. "I can. Close your eyes." 

When he didn't, I smirked as I reached over and placed one hand over his eyes. Then, with some concentration and a laugh (he made a snarky remark about performance issues), I changed my hair from purple to a -literally- glowing blue. When I pulled my hand away, his eyes went wide and he laughed. Then, I did something else. Something I’d only ever done for Isa. I closed my eyes and let bioluminescent designs cover my body. They slowly slithered into existence, like snakes under my skin. Swirls, narrow and elegant, curling into nearly seductive tendrils all over me. Including one particular swirl on my cheek, which he so breathlessly traced with his thumb, and as soon as I opened my eyes, he leaned over to kiss me. When he pulled away, he cupped my face, and whispered. "That's amazing. _You’re_ amazing, Alexa." The way he said my name… it gave me goosebumps. And for the first time in nearly 20 years, I actually loved my name. Confidence spiked my veins and I rolled over so that I was on top of him.

He grinned. “Round two?”

I bit my lip and moved my hair so that it wasn’t over my shoulder. “I think we’re on round 4, babe.” He smiled that perfect grin again, and –with a giggle from me, he- flipped us over so he was on top.

 

~~

 

(Bruce’s POV)

 

I watched as Bruja slept gently. She lay on her side facing the window and the moon cast a sort of blue colour on her delicate skin. One arm was folded under her head as the other wrapped around her shoulder, allowing her hand to rest where Kegan used to reside. A thin sheet rested on her hip, barely hiding the pink roses and vines spiralling down from the small rib cage just above. My finger shamelessly wrote out equations on her back, which had lulled her to sleep. Every now and again, I would accidentally touch her shoulder blade, which would cause her to flinch in her sleep. I suppose she wasn't used to people being able to touch there. 

Now, I am many things. Stupid being the very last on that list. I knew she used me to take the pain away, and that was okay with me. What I didn't know, is if she really felt something for me. Yes, she just lost her husband for the second time. To none other than me. No, not me. The other guy. Still, the guilt I feel for that is unfathomable. But here she is, sleeping naked in my bed. And God, she is beautiful. I want her to be happy, too. Whether that’s with me or not. But if the past few hours are any indicator, I think I do make her happy. A least a little bit.

There’s one other thing. Earlier, she told me that she was going to use her money from the warehouse in Nevada to buy a hotel for all of the inks. Somewhere they could live happily, and for free. She wasn’t sure where, but I don’t care. I want to go with her. I need a break from all of the stress here anyway.

I’m not sure she’d let me come, but I hope to god she would.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short end chapter.   
> HOW TO BREAK OUT OF ZIP TIES (THIS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE):   
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfmOD5jImOs
> 
> Translations:  
> Spanish:   
> Hijos de puta madre: Mother fuckers
> 
> Ukranian (I literally used google translate for this so I'm sorry if it's wrong):  
> що: what?  
> хто тебе послав: Who sent you?!  
> Я не знаю: I don't know!  
> Я вирву твоє горло, і купатися в крові, якщо ви не повідомите мене: I will rip out your throat and bathe in the blood if you don't tell me.

I regretted my decision the moment it was over. The night had been filled with pleased moans and memories had faded, but I used Bruce in the process. And the reason I regretted that, was because I actually did like him. A lot. So I got up, pulled my clothes on, and wrote him a note before leaving.

_"What is greater than God and more evil than the devil?_  
The poor have it, and the rich need it...and in the end of things, this is what I am. This is what I will always be.   
But not you, my beautiful monster. You are everything.

_~Alexa”_

The answer to the riddle was 'nothing.' He would know, he would understand.

I knew he was awake when I got up. His breathing had gone from relaxed short breaths to deep inhales. So I leaned over and kissed his temple before leaving. Thanks to Logan's ears, I could hear Brice sit up and chuckle at my note as I leaned against the wall next to the door. The last thing I hear is him get up and start the shower.

That is, before someone put a bag over my head and covered my mouth. 

I tried to scream, I really did. But they pushed a needle into my arm, and something that felt like sludge slid itself into my veins. It felt like something had hit me internally and I began to panic. I needed to get out of there. If Keegan had been there, she'd have been screaming at me to shift out of there. I tried that too, I swear. I thought 'Flea!' And waited for the process to start. But my body practically creaked like an old house when someone disturbs it after years of neglect and loneliness. The realization of what was happening hit me as the person zip-tied my hands behind my back.

I...I couldn't shift. 

My body went limp and I gave up. I let them take me. It was all I could do now, considering the person who had me was like a 6'6 bouncer at a high-end bar, in the sense that he was built like a bull. 

After a few moments, a car door slid in and the guy shoved me in. Something smelt of... Sulphur? After the door slammed shut, I waited for a sound. There was someone else back here, but I needed to know who. "Al?!" Diablo's panicked voice came from my left and it only took me a second to crawl over to him. "Bru, tell me that's you!"

A wave of relief flooded through me. "It's me, Brother." My bound hands slid themselves under my legs, and lifted them to my mouth. Quickly, my teeth sought out the end of the zip tie and I pulled it as tight as I could. Then, with a deep breath, I pulled my elbows apart, lifted my hands, and pulled them back down against my stomach as hard and as fast as I could (imagine I was stabbing myself in the stomach). It didn't work the first few times, but on the third time, the tie snapped. I then pulled off the bag and looked around. A van. Definitely not a cliché, no, not at all. Okay, body count, Bruja. Focus. Two guys. One driving, one riding shotgun _with_ a shotgun. Brilliant. There was music blasting. Some obscene metal band, singing in a language I'd never heard before. But that's good, Dia and I could easily escape. 

But, something didn't feel right. This wasn't a random napping. Nor was this a regular kill-for-hire mission. Someone sent for us. Someone wants us, and they want us weak.

I muttered a small "hijos de puta madre," in reference to my two 'escorts,' as I pulled the bag off of my brother's head. I didn't need to tell him to stay quiet. He'd had this training too. And it didn't take long for us to get him out of his binds, but it was just long enough for us to reach our destination. 

Without any words, we both hid and waited for the men to open the door. When they did, I tackled the closest one and pinned him down on the gravel. I heard Dia punch the other, and their body fell like a bag of bricks. But that didn't matter to me. I was seeing red, I was so mad. So I didn't try to keep my voice down when I asked, "Who sent you?"

He was shaking. Pft, amateur. "що?" His voice quivered and I swear to god I could smell his blood. It smelled so good. But, wait, was that Ukrainian? Hah! Easy. 

"хто тебе послав?!" I screamed again, but this time my grip on his collar tightened, and I pulled him off the ground a little.

"Я не знаю!" Still his voice shook, but it pissed me off this time. 

"Я вирву твоє горло, і купатися в крові, якщо ви не повідомите мене." A smirk crossed my face, and he knew I wasn't lying. But, still, he didn't answer, which I would normally respect, but right then? Right then, I wanted him dead. 

So I kept my word and sunk my teeth into his neck, then I tore an entire chunk of skin out. Blood sprayed me in the face and I licked at it. "Hm." I smacked my lips and tried to understand why his blood tasted so weird. "He's anemic."

"Really Bruja?" Dia looked grossed out, but he understood. 

"Yes. I'd guess about a level..." I licked my lips again. "12? Yes, 12."

He fake gagged. "Let's go find out what asshole decided to 'nap us."

I nodded. "Agreed."

We walked towards a building in the middle of fucking nowhere, which was weird for New York. Wait. I stopped dead in my tracks and took my brother's hand. "No, he wasn't anemic, that was a mutant. He teleported us."

"But where?" Diablo looked around and sniffed at the air. "Smells like--"

"Alexander? Alexa?" A feminine voice came from behind the two of us. We whipped around and faced her. And I'll tell you something. Maddox was wrong, she looks just like me. 

 

_"Mom?"_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! Thank you guys for supporting me all the way through. Maybe if this reaches 1,000, I'll do a sequel. (Probably not)


	26. Chapter 26

Fuck it! Go to the second part, I'm currently working on it and I think you guys will like it!

**Author's Note:**

> So, are you guys interested? Abort mission?


End file.
